Profiling The Fraudster: Removing the Mask to Prevent and Detect Fraud

Chapter 14Profiling the Victim Organization and Its Geography

IN THE UNITED KINGDOM, an estimated 48 percent of the population has been targeted with a scam and 8 percent admit to being a victim of one. Clearly, either few attempts succeed or people are not admitting to having been duped. Interestingly, in the study of victimology we can analyze and profile which organizations are more likely to become victims of fraud. This data or profiling is of use not only to consulting firms in their marketing strategies but also to organizations themselves. If you are in a low-risk organization, in a low-risk industry, in a country where fraud and corruption are historically low, then you are not going to spend a great deal of time or money on expensive fraud risk management.

According to the ACFE, the industries most commonly victimized at the time of writing are the banking and financial services, government and public administration, and manufacturing sectors.

The presence of antifraud controls is notably correlated with significant decreases in the cost and duration of occupational fraud schemes. Victim organizations that have implemented common antifraud controls experience considerably lower losses and time-to-detection than organizations lacking these controls.

I lived and worked in the Middle East for many years where incidences of fraud were relatively low compared to other regions. Some of the following factors can be attributed to influencing the low fraud rate in the region: ...