Page 425 - ACFE Fraud Reports 2009_2020

Source of Tips
It is well known that employees are a valuable source of information for discovering potential fraud, and Figure 13
shows that employees were the source of almost half of all tips that led to the detection of fraud. Occupational fraud has
a negative impact on an organization, including those who work for it, which might explain why employees so often
step forward. At the same time, there is often a risk of backlash for whistleblowers, which might explain why a substan-
tial amount of tips came from anonymous parties (14.6%).
The fact that more than half of all tips involved parties other than confirmed employees emphasizes the impor-
tance of cultivating tips from various sources. For example, many employers circulate a whistleblower policy or
fraud hotline information to employees only, but our data indicates that it is also advantageous to educate ven-
dors, customers and owners/shareholders on how to report suspicions of fraud.

Figure 13: Source of Tips

Employee 49.0%

Customer 14.6% 21.6%

Anonymous
SOURCE OF TIPS Vendor 6.5% 9.6%

Other

Shareholder/Owner 4.3%

Competitor 1.5%
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50%
PERCENT OF TIPS

REPORT TO THE NATIONS ON OCCUPATIONAL FRAUD AND ABUSE 21