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The Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE), a leading professional body of fraud examiners, has undertaken extensive research into the costs and trends relating to occupational fraud schemes. The findings of the ACFE's initial research efforts were released in 1996 in the first Report to the Nations on Occupational Fraud and Abuse, with subsequent reports released in 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008, and 2010. The ACFE's 2012 Report to the Nations on Occupational Fraud and Abuse, now carried out every two years, provides an analysis of 1,388 fraud cases investigated worldwide by qualified fraud examiners and continues a tradition of shedding light on trends in the characteristics of fraudsters, the schemes they perpetrate, and the organizations being victimized. The ACFE findings truly reflect global trends in occupational fraud and abuse and are invaluable in keeping us abreast of the fraud disease.

The goals of these reports have been to

• Summarize the opinions of experts on the percentage of organizational revenue lost to all forms of occupational fraud and abuse.

• Categorize the ways in which occupational fraud and abuse occur.

• Examine the characteristics of the employees who commit occupational fraud and abuse.

• Determine what kinds of organizations are victims of occupational fraud and abuse.

Each version of the report has been based on detailed information about fraud cases investigated by certified fraud examiners (CFEs). Each new edition expands and modifies the analysis contained in the previous reports to reflect current issues and enhance the quality of the data that is reported. This evolution has allowed the release of increasingly meaningful information from the experiences of CFEs and the frauds that they encounter.

Fraud, like many other crimes, can be explained by the existence of the following four key drivers:

1. A supply of motivated, pressurized, or incentivized offenders.

2. The absence of capable guardians and policing, or weaknesses in control systems, opening up an opportunity.

3. Rationalization in the fraudster's mind bringing about justification for his actions in exploiting the opportunity to satisfy the motivation.

4. The availability of suitable victim organizations.

The motivation, pressure, or incentive to defraud may be as simple as financial need or greed or anything from unrealistic deadlines and performance goals to personal vices such as gambling or drugs.

The opportunity to commit and conceal fraud is really the only element over which an organization has significant control. The opportunity is an open door to solving a nonshareable problem by violating a position of trust and is generally provided through weaknesses in the internal controls. Some examples of weak internal controls include but are by no means limited to absent or inadequate procedures surrounding the following:

• Supervision and review.

• Segregation of duties.

• Management approval and delegation of authority.

• System controls.

Rationalization is a crucial component because most people need to reconcile their behavior with the commonly accepted notions of decency and trust. Some examples of justifications for their actions given by fraudsters I have met include the following:

• “I really need this money, and I'll put it back when I get my salary at the month's end.”

• “I'd rather have the company on my back than the tax people.”

• “Everyone else is doing it.”

• “I just can't afford to lose everything I have worked for – my home, car, everything.”

The availability of a suitable victim organization is an easy one. It is more often than not the fraudster's employer, with whom he has built up a relationship of trust, quite often over many years.

The ACFE 2012 Report to the Nations on Occupational Fraud and Abuse analyzes statistics from fraud cases investigated worldwide to gain an understanding of the characteristics of fraudsters, their schemes, and the types of organizations being targeted. Throughout the report, the statistics include comparison charts showing several years of data, which highlight the consistency of findings over time. This uniformity is among the most notable of observations from the ongoing research and indicates that the findings truly reflect global trends in occupational fraud and abuse and that the ACFE statistics represent an important core base for profiling in any organization.