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.
Roch Monnig, CFP, is a wealth advisor at Burney Wealth Management, one of the first registered investment advisor firms in Virginia, which encompasses a range of services including financial planning, investment management, tax planning, estate planning and retirement planning.
Monnig earned his bachelor's degree from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville in 2016 and became a certified financial planner in 2018.
Arun Balakrishnan is CEO of Xceedance, a global leader in delivering insurance-focused consulting, technology, operations, and data solutions to many of the world's largest P&C insurance organizations. He has more than 15 years of experience launching and leading start-ups in the insurance sector. He is passionate about promoting innovation and transformation in the insurance industry, which he believes to be a key element of societies and economies.
Michael Turner is CEO of Validis. Validis connects auditors with accounting data. Michael has worked in the data industry for the last 5 years and previously was a Partner at Oliver Wyman.
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.
