Managing Fraud Risk: A Practical Guide for Directors and Managers

The ACFE's “Report to the Nation”

Every two years the ACFE prepares a major report on occupational fraud and abuse based on data from actual fraud cases supplied to it by the certified fraud examiners who carried out the investigations. It titles these reports: Report to the Nation on Occupational Fraud and Abuse and these are referred to throughout this book by the acronym “RTTN”. The first report was produced in 1996 and then a second in 2002, since then they have been updated every two years. In 2010, for the first time, this report included data from cases occurring outside the US to provide a global view of occupational fraud – this 2010 report is referred to as “RTTNs” in this book. As an example of the scale of the surveys undertaken to produce these reports, the 2010 RTTNs is based on an analysis of data compiled from 1,843 occupational fraud cases that occurred worldwide during 2008 and 2009 as submitted by the certified fraud examiners who investigated those cases. Each RTTN contains important findings on such issues as the size and frequency of fraud, the motives of fraudsters and which controls are the most effective in preventing, deterring and detecting fraud. In my view it is important that directors and managers are aware of the main results and conclusions contained in these reports and they are referred to at the appropriate points throughout this book.

Set out in Table 2.1 below are a number of unique factors compiled by the ACFE from an analysis of their survey ...