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.
Joe Emison is the co-founder and CTO of Branch. He has been building software and technology organizations for more than 25 years. Prior to Branch, Joe founded BuildFax, the company's leading provider of building permit data to financial institutions (acquired by Verisk); Spaceful, software for tenant-rep brokers in commercial real estate (acquired by Xceligent), and BluePrince, software for managing local building departments (acquired by Harris Computer). Joe graduated with degrees in English and Mathematics from Williams College and has a law degree from Yale Law School.
Melbourne O'Banion is Bestow's CEO and co-founder. An entrepreneur and seasoned investor, O'Banion has a track record of start-up success. Before Bestow, he was a founding member of Presidio Title, a leading title insurance agency in Texas. And together with his wife, he founded Beauty Bioscience, a luxury skincare line. He's a member of the National Advisory Council for the Marriott School of Management at Brigham Young University, where he studied Finance and Ancient Near Eastern Studies, and is on the board of the SMU Tate Lecture Series.
Rodrigo Liang is co-founder and CEO of SambaNova Systems.
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.
