COVID-19 has affected — and will continue to affect — the business environment in countless ways. Travel bans, employees working remotely, and an increased reliance on technology and economic uncertainty have become the reality for many organizationsaround the world. And while these and other hurdles present numerous logistical and operational challenges, they also open the door to the increased pressure, opportunity and rationalization that can lead to fraud.

To illuminate the global pandemic’s impact on the fight against fraud, the ACFE is undertaking a series of benchmarking surveys exploring how fraud risks and anti-fraud programs are changing in the current environment. The September 2020 edition of the Fraud in the Wake of COVID-19: Benchmarking Report summarizes the results of the second of these surveys, which was conducted from late-July to mid-August 2020. We hope that the information highlighted in this report will help you understand how fraud risk is evolving and the importance of staying ever vigilant in protecting against its harms in the wake of the novel coronavirus.

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Source: ACFE global

Learn some of the basic ways fraudsters can clean money they’ve obtained through illegal means.

See below the relevant video:

GUEST AUTHOR
Michele L. Creek-Tatom, CFE, CIA
Internal Audit Manager, J.R. Simplot Company

“That could never happen here! Why would someone ever steal from our company? The internal audit people will catch it if someone tries anything. My co-workers are like family! I just can’t imagine someone doing that!”

Does this sound familiar? As anti-fraud professionals, we are trained to find and fix the opportunities for fraudulent activity within our organizations. But there are usually only a few of us and many employees. How is a small team, or single fraud professional, supposed to deter and detect all fraud? The answer is we can’t. We rely, in part, on the honesty of the average employee. For dishonest employees, we rely on controls and consequences to deter bad behavior. But what if there were a way to enlist and educate the honest, frontline employee to be the eyes and ears of everyday fraud detection? What if fraud awareness became every employee’s responsibility — not just the fraud professionals’?

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source: ACFE insights

GUEST BLOGGER
Mason Wilder, CFE
Senior Research Specialist

Business disruptions occurring globally are causing significant shifts in how everyone, including fraud examiners, approach their jobs and duties. With many professionals working remotely for the first time, one of the most significant changes for fraud examiners might be the inability to conduct in-person interviews due to COVID-19.

One of the most impressive things about the ACFE membership is the wide range of roles, backgrounds and types of professional experience represented. Some members are not letting COVID-19 restrictions affect their tried-and-true processes, while for others, remote interviewing has been part of their repertoire well before a global pandemic impacted the profession.

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Source: ACFE insights