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.
Karun is a seasoned technology-focused professional with global IT industry experience in the insurance, pensions, and investment management sector. He has extensive experience in managing customer relationships, large-scale technology projects, platform selection & implementations and consulting engagements, and building and leading top-performing teams servicing users globally.
His research focuses on insurance technology trends and solutions for the EMEA region across P&C and L&H lines of business, as well as covering the London market.
Before joining Celent, Karun had spent 22 years with Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), where he contributed to expanding its insurance portfolio in Europe. Karun has a significant track record in winning, retaining & executing large multi-million global IT contracts for TCS, complete solution & cost ownership, and advising customers on their strategic initiatives. He brings a deep understanding of insurance technologies. Early in his career, Karun worked in the manufacturing and supply chain management domain and led consulting assignments on IT strategy and Enterprise Architecture.
Karun keeps track of changing technologies and business models in the financial service industry and regularly attends seminars and conferences. Karun has also published articles on emerging technologies such as quantum computing and crypto/blockchain. He has a bachelor's degree in Electronics and Communication Engineering from Calicut University and Certification in Fintech from Said Business school at Oxford University.
Karun lives in Cambridge, the United Kingdom, with his wife, daughter, and son.
Anna King, CPA, is CFO of Mesh Payments, a financial management platform. She was previously the long-time CFO of Transactis, a billing and payments processing company acquired by Mastercard.
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.
