Page 164 - ACFE Fraud Reports 2009_2020

The Perpetrators

Check Tampering Check Tampering
As we stated earlier, the most common type of fraud com-
mitted by accounting employees was check tampering, in Department Cases %
which company checks are forged or altered, or outgoing Accounting 74 57.4%
checks are stolen and deposited in the perpetrator’s bank Executive/Upper Management 34 26.4%
account. Customer Service 6 4.7%
Finance 6 4.7%
Over one-fourth of check tampering cases were commit-
ted by executives. In many cases, these schemes involved Sales 4 3.1%
executives with signatory authority who wrote company Board of Directors 2 1.6%
checks to pay personal expenses. Manufacturing & Production 1 0.8%
Purchasing 1 0.8%
Wire Transfer Schemes Human Resources 1 0.8%
Wire transfer schemes were also most likely to be commit-
ted either by executives (who would have the authority to
approve a wire transfer of funds) or accounting personnel
(who would be responsible for processing those transfers.) Wire Transfer Schemes
Department Cases %
Cash Larceny
One of the most common ways for cash larceny to occur is Executive/Upper Management 27 48.2%
for an employee to steal part or all of an organization’s dai- Accounting 14 25.0%
ly receipts before they are deposited in the bank. Since ac- Finance 7 12.5%
counting personnel are generally responsible for preparing Sales 4 7.1%
the bank deposit, it is not surprising that these employees Customer Service 3 5.4%
would be the most likely to commit cash larceny.
Marketing/Public Relations 1 1.8%
Another common way for cash larceny to occur is for an
employee to steal cash receipts at the point of sale. As we see
below, nearly 20% of cash larceny schemes were commit- Cash Larceny
ted by sales department employees, and another 11% were
committed by those with customer service responsibilities. Department Cases %
Accounting 46 43.0%
Sales 20 18.7%
Executive/Upper Management 19 17.8%
Customer Service 12 11.2%
Finance 6 5.6%
Manufacturing & Production 2 1.9%
Information Technology 1 0.9%
Marketing/Public Relations 1 0.9%

ACFE Report to the Nation on Occupational Fraud & Abuse