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.
Brooke Ybarra is senior vice president for Innovation and Strategy at the American Bankers Association.
Dana Edwards is focused on designing and developing digital products for the US and UK Simply Business businesses. He has a track record of running product, technology, and data teams using the latest customer-centric, agile practices.
His passion is helping engineers, business teams, product teams, data teams, and enterprises work in a way that produces high quality products for customers. This drives him to create an environment of empowerment and inclusivity.
Dana joined Simply Business in 2022 with an extensive background in financial services. Previously, he held roles as Chief Technology Officer for firms such as PNC Financial Services and MUFG Union Bank. His career started with roles in product and technology development, and academics
Sam Rea is the chief technology officer at Aspire General Insurance, bringing over 20 years of experience leading IT organizations in the insurance industry. Prior to joining Aspire, he served as CTO for the PEAK6 InsurTech portfolio, overseeing technology across an agency franchise, MGA, SaaS platform, BPO service, and a national flood insurance processor. He previously held senior roles at National General Insurance as EVP and CIO, and at Zurich Insurance as assistant vice president.
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.
