Study 2,690 cases of occupational fraud over 18 months and you may see some trends. The Association of Certified Fraud Examiners conducted a survey of its 41,000+ certified fraud examiners to collect data on the single biggest fraud case they investigated from January 2016 to October 2017.
The study identified six behavioral red flags that have consistently been common in each of its studies (ranked by prevalence):
- Living beyond means (41%)
- Financial difficulties (29%)
- Unusually close association with vendor/customer (20%)
- Control issues/ unwillingness to share duties (15%)
- Divorce or family problems (14%)
- “Wheeler-Dealer” attitude involving shrewd or unscrupulous behavior (13%)
According to the report, the fraudster displayed at least one of these red flags in 86% of the cases and displayed more than one in 50% of the cases.
The other piece of data that jumped out at me was that employees who been with their company longer stole more. Setting the line at five years of tenure at the job, those with more stole a median of $200,000 and those with less stole $100,000.
Sources:
- 2018 Global Study on Occupational Fraud and Abuse by the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners