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.
Jeff Bales is the Senior Director of Business Development at Notion, empowering home and property owners to be proactive in monitoring their spaces and most valued possessions. Through partner programs, Notion helps insurance carriers, agents and service providers provide value to their customers with Notion's DIY smart monitoring technology.
Debbie Ivie, CPCU, AIM, NcIA, is learning experiences director of the Network of Vertafore Users (NetVU). She can be reached at debbie@netvu.org or 972.409.6209.
Steven Schwartz is VP of Insurance Strategy and Underwriting at Safe Security. Previously, he was CRO at Periculus, and prior, was VP Strategy and Insurance Practice at Cytegic. Steven serves on the Advisory Board at PACE University's Seidenberg School for Computer Science and Information Security, and is a co-founder of both The Data Union and Personal Data Week, introducing the topic of "personal data" and its implications for society, industry, and regulation such as GDPR, CCPA, NYDFS and more to more than 30k global members. He was nominated to NYC's 2017 "33 Under 33" and currently holds his Investment Advisor License (Series 65) and Property, Casualty, Health and Life Insurance licenses.
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.
