David Anderson is principal of David Anderson & Associates, a Philadelphia forensic accounting firm that provides a full range of forensic accounting services including fraud investigation, fraud deterrence, business valuation, and marital dissolution in Philadelphia and the Delaware Valley.

This is the final entry in a series of six posts.

This blog continues and completes my discussion of the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE) “Occupational Fraud 2026 – A Report to the Nations”. This final article focuses on how perpetrators concealed their frauds:

• The top seven concealment methods used by fraudsters were:
  • Creating fraudulent physical documents (39 percent of all frauds)
  • Altering physical documents (33 percent of all frauds)
  • Creating fraudulent electronic documents or files (28 percent of all frauds)
  • Altering electronic documents or files (28 percent of all frauds)
  • Destroying or withholding physical documents (19 percent of all frauds)
  • Creating fraudulent transactions in the accounting system (19 percent of all frauds)
  • Deleting or withholding electronic documents or files (17 percent of all frauds)

(These methods total more than 100 percent because some fraudsters used more than one method of concealing their fraudulent activities.)

• 89 percent of all cases involved the creation of fraudulent evidence and/or fraudulent transactions in the accounting system
• In 11 percent of frauds, the fraudster made no attempt to conceal the fraud.

The above concealment data points to the importance of such anti-fraud controls as:

• Job rotation/mandatory vacation (to prevent ongoing concealment by the perpetrator)
• Surprise audits (to potentially catch activity before it can be concealed)
• Pro-active data monitoring/analysis (to potentially catch activity before it can be concealed and to identify trends or data that seems to be “out of sync” due to the concealment)
• Formal fraud risk assessments by outside parties (to identify areas which could be subject to concealment)

I hope you enjoyed reading this six-blog series about the current state of fraud and found the information I provided to be both interesting and significant.

If you would like assistance ferreting fraud from your business or organization, or if you just have questions about potentially hidden fraud occurring in your organization, please reach out to our firm. Led by a Certified Fraud Examiner, we provide experienced forensic accounting services in Philadelphia and the Delaware Valley. The Philadelphia forensic accounting firm of David Anderson & Associates can be reached by calling David Anderson at 267-207-3597 or emailing him at david@davidandersonassociates.com.

About David Anderson & Associates

David Anderson & Associates is a Philadelphia forensic accounting firm that provides a full range of forensic accounting services in Philadelphia and the Delaware Valley. The experienced professionals at David Anderson & Associates provide forensic accounting, business valuation, fraud investigation, fraud deterrence, litigation support, economic damage analysis, business consulting, and outsourced CFO services. Company principal David Anderson is a forensic accounting expert who has more than 35 years of experience in financial and operational leadership positions and is a Certified Public Accountant, a Certified Fraud Examiner, and a Certified Valuation Analyst.