"THE ROLE OF DIGITAL FORENSICS IN THE PRELIMINARY INVESTIGATION' (Case Study: Directorate General of Taxes in North Sulawesi, Central Sulawesi, Gorontalo, and North Malut).

In this era, technological developments have a significant influence in business. However, many taxpayer abuse the use at technology to commit fraud. Therefore, there needs to be a system that can filter and detect data of taxpayer who commit fraud. This research is conducted to analyze digital forensics' role in dealing with fraud and to determine the critical success factors that support the digital forensics in detecting fraud. This study uses qualitative research where the researcher wanted to find out the role of Digital Forensics in the Preliminary Evidence Examination by interviewing the digital forensic officer in the Directorate General taxes Suluttanggomalut . The result prove that the role of digital "forensics in the preliminary Investigation is crucial. The management and development of digital data can be carried out effectively with valid evidence through Digital Forensic activities (UU ITE). The skill of Digital Forensics officer in using programs to process data is essential in getting evidence. Taxpayer participation is also important in gathering evidence. The amount of digital evidence collected will be used through analysis and development by using chain of custody method, where this method can ensure the integrity of the data processed to convince the court in making decisions.