Page 413 - ACFE Fraud Reports 2009_2020

Distribution of Losses
One metric that can be effectively measured and used to analyze the cost of fraud is the amount of financial dam-
age caused by individual instances of known fraud. Of the 1,483 cases in our study, 1,445 included information
about the total dollar amount lost to fraud; for those, the median loss caused by the scheme was $145,000. Addi-
tionally, over our last three studies, the dollar losses of the cases analyzed have followed a relatively distinct pattern,
with just over half causing losses under $200,000 and more than one-fifth involving losses of at least $1 million.

Figure 2: Distribution of Dollar Losses

60%
55.5% 54.4%
51.9%
50%

40%
PERCENT OF CASES 30% 23.7% 20.6% 21.9%

20%
12.7% 12.8% 11.8%
10% 6.9% 5.7% 6.6% 2014
2.9% 3.5% 3.4% 2.0% 1.9% 1.8% 2012
0% 2010
Less than $200,000- $400,000- $600,000- $800,000- $1,000,000
$200,000 $399,999 $599,999 $799,999 $999,999 and up
DOLLAR LOSS

REPORT TO THE NATIONS ON OCCUPATIONAL FRAUD AND ABUSE 9