Fraud is continuing to increase this year, in part due to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a new survey by the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners.
The report found that 79 percent of anti-fraud professionals have seen an increase in the overall level of fraud as of November, compared to 77 percent in August and 68 percent in May. Thirty-eight percent of the respondents said in November the increase has been significant, compared to 34 percent in August and 25 percent in May.
Chase Petrey is the President of Applied Pay at Applied Systems. He has a diverse career in the enterprise software industry, bringing with him a unique set of fintech, Software as a Service (SaaS), and analytics skills. Chase also serves as President of the Salt Lake City Chapter at Silicon Slopes, a nonprofit organization that exists to empower Utah's tech community to learn, connect, and serve in order to make entrepreneurship open and accessible to all.
Christina Lee is a Researcher at ACTUAL, where she focuses on comprehensive policy and industry-related research. With a keen interest in energy and sustainability, Christina delves into topics ranging from renewables and green hydrogen to supply chain dynamics and electric vehicles (EVs). Her research involves synthesizing complex data and trends to provide actionable insights for decision-makers in both public and private sectors. Christina earned her BA in Urban Studies and Planning from the University of California, Berkeley, from the College of Environmental Design.
Karthik Balakrishnan, Ph.D, is the President and Co-founder of ACTUAL, the Capital Planning Software that allows enterprise CFOs to greenlight the investments which allow them to meet their sustainability goals. With over a decade of experience working at the intersection of asset transformation and supply chain, Karthik has established himself as a sought-after leader, speaking at various events on sustainable development, government policy and global implementation. Karthik holds a PhD and MS from Stanford and a BS from UC San Diego all in Aerospace Engineering.
Cyber fraud, payment fraud (such as schemes with debit and credit cards) and identity theft are the three top fraud schemes seeing increases, according to anti-fraud professionals.
The largest increase in observed fraud was in financial statement fraud, with 7 percent more anti-fraud professionals reported seeing financial statement fraud in November, compared to August. That could be because as companies continue to see their profits drop, they feel more pressure to cook the books.
The survey also found 77 percent of anti-fraud professionals report that investigating and preventing fraud is more challenging now, while 71 percent said detecting fraud is more challenging as a result of the pandemic.
ACFE members anticipate the fraud trend will continue, even as vaccines have begun rolling out this week in the U.S. Ninety percent of the survey respondents expect a further increase in the level of fraud over the next 12 months, with 44 percent predicting the change is likely to be significant.
Nearly half (48 percent) of the organizations polled expect to increase their investments in anti-fraud technology, and 38 percent intend to raise the use of fraud-related consultants or other external resources. Budgets for anti-fraud training and professional development are experiencing a similar increase (according to 37 percent of the organizations polled), but nearly one-quarter (24 percent) anticipate a decrease in this area. The budget component most likely to see decreases is travel for anti-fraud staff, which shouldn’t be surprising given the plunging levels of air travel in general over this past year, with 38 percent of the survey respondents expecting a reduction in funds for travel in the year ahead.
