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.
Julio Pernía is the founder and CEO of Bdeo.
Pernía is a leading entrepreneur with experience across multiple technology sectors. In 2006, he founded Reparanet, the largest SaaS platform for repair companies in Spain. He also co-founded Director11, a sports management SaaS platform that is currently the most used product in Spain's La Liga.
Akash Agarwal is the founder and CEO of Pibit.AI. He leads the team behind CURE™, a unified underwriting decision framework designed to bring clarity, structure, and transparency to modern underwriting.
Sara Perez is Executive Vice President at EIS. With over 25 years of B2B technology experience, Sara has a distinguished track record of driving growth and innovation through strategic marketing. Her career encompasses diverse roles in both regional and global capacities, working with companies in both SaaS and traditional technology, ranging from agile start-ups to multibillion-dollar enterprises.
Before joining EIS, Sara held senior leadership roles at Business Objects (SAP), Genesys, VMware, and Schneider Electric, consistently combining strategic vision with operational execution to deliver measurable business impact.
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.
