Page 702 - ACFE Fraud Reports 2009_2020

Perpetrator’s Education Level

FIG. 37 How does the perpetrator’s education
level relate to occupational fraud? Level of Authority $600,000
MEDIAN LOSS
49% Most occupational frauds are
committed by employee-level or
manager-level personnel.
But frauds by owners/executives
are much more harmful.

PERCENT OF C A SES 22% $150,000

MEDIAN LOSS
15%
14%
MEDIAN LOSS
$60,000

EMPLOYEE MANAGER OWNER/
High school Some University Postgraduate
graduate or less university degree degree EXECUTIVE
41% 35% 20%

PERCENT OF CASES
MEDIAN L OSS $80,000

High-Risk Departments

More than three-fourths of all occupational frauds were
$150,000 committed by employees from these 8 business units:

$175,000
Operations 15%
$200,000
Accounting 14%

We also found a correlation between the per- Executive/upper management 12%
petrator’s education level and median loss. Sales 11%
Figure 37 shows that fraudsters with a high
school degree or less caused a median loss of Customer service 9%
USD 80,000, while those with a postgraduate
degree caused a median loss of USD 200,000. Administrative support 6%
Generally, we would expect losses to correlate Finance 5%
with education because those with higher levels
of education tend to hold higher positions of Purchasing 5%
authority and might also have greater technical
capabilities for committing fraud.

46 Perpetrators Report to the Nations