A survey of certified fraud examiners found that the median loss for a U.S. organization that’s a victim of fraud is $105,000.

The study, which was based on 1,843 case studies between January 2008 and December 2009, found that billing and corruption schemes were the leading types of fraud reported in United States.



The results, which were published by the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners in its 2010 Report to the Nations on occupational fraud and abuse, included several key findings:

· Billing schemes were present in 27.6 percent of cases and corruption was reported in 21.9 percent of cases.

· More than 46 percent of fraudulent activity was committed by lower-level employees, and 17.1 percent of frauds were committed by organizations’ top decision makers.

· Compared with a median fraud loss of $50,000 when lower-level workers were involved, the median for frauds perpetuated by C-level types was $485,000. Managers who engaged in fraud caused a median loss of $150,000.

· Men committed more than 57 percent of frauds in United States, a narrower gender gap than was found in cases from other regions such as Asia, where 86.7 percent of frauds were perpetrated by males. In Europe, men accounted for 82.1 percent of offenders.

· Nearly 38 percent of frauds are uncovered through anonymous sources, compared with 17.1 percent through management reviews and 13.7 percent by internal audits.

The full report, which includes additional breakdowns of fraud statistics by geographical region and details the most common behavioral traits observed among fraud perpetrators, can be downloaded at www.acfe.com/rttn.