Global Fraud Focus
The biannual survey report that the ACFE has provided since 1996 on occupational fraud and abuse has gone global. The “s” at the end of the word nation on the title page of the “2010 Report to the Nations on Occupational Fraud and Abuse” reveals a lot about fraud. Although nations might possess certain characteristics and customs, it appears that fraud has no particular affinity in targeting one country over another despite our cultural differences.
The report organizes 106 countries into five regions: Africa (21), Asia (30), Central/South America and the Caribbean (21), Europe (28), and Oceania (4). Two countries, Canada and the United States, were listed separately.
As with any survey, the results are subject to interpretation, but the source of the data – a key component of methodology – provides credibility to the results. An online survey was distributed to 22,927 CFEs in October 2009 of which 1,939 were completed and 1,843 were deemed useable. The 8.5 percent response rate is quite high considering each respondent was asked to answer 87 questions and provide a detailed narrative of the single-largest fraud case worked from January 2008 to the date of the survey.