Organizations lose an estimated 5% of their revenue to fraud each year, according to a report released Tuesday by the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners.
The ACFE's
The median fraud loss per case in the study was $104,000, but the average loss per case was $1,457,000, while 20% of cases in the study had losses of more than $1 million.
The industries with the highest median fraud loss were mining ($300,000), wholesale trade ($256,000) and real estate ($250,000). A typical fraud case lasted 12 months before it was detected. In addition, 43% of the frauds in this year's study were detected after a tip was reported, and over half of those tips originated from employees.
The study found that 68% of fraudsters were terminated by their employers, while 54% of the cases examined were referred to law enforcement.
Corruption has risen a great deal since 1996, up from 10% to 45% of cases now. The median fraud losses by organization size have remained mostly consistent, with small businesses and large corporations continuing to face the most fraud losses, and tenured fraudsters causing more financial damage.
Occupational fraud losses spiked during the COVID-19 pandemic. While losses have resumed a downward trend, the median duration remains level.
The gender divide between fraudsters has shifted somewhat. The percentage of female perpetrators grew from 25% to 28% in the cases tracked in the 1996 and 2026 studies. However, the gap in median fraud losses between male and female fraudsters has shrunk over that period of time, from $137,000 to $35,000.
There has also been a shift in the seniority and tenure of fraud perpetrators at organizations. In 1996, staff-level employees were more likely to commit fraud (58%), followed by managers (30%) and owners-executives (12%). In 2026, both employees and managers committed fraud in 41% of cases, while 16% of fraudsters were found to be owners/executives. Losses increased steadily with tenure, with schemes committed by individuals who had worked for the organization more than 10 years resulting in the highest median losses ($200,000). However, longer tenure did not equate to higher frequency. The ACFE's findings indicate that, while extended tenure is associated with more-costly frauds, a majority of occupational fraud is committed by employees who have been employed at an organization for fewer than five years.
This year's report also spotlights fraud in banking and financial services (the industry most represented by this study's cases), and examines how cryptocurrency is used in committing fraud, the effectiveness of providing fraud awareness training to employees at all levels of an organization, fraud concealment methods and more.
"Prevention is so valuable in combatting any type of fraud, and within workplaces, fraud prevention must be a collaborative effort across employee levels," said ACFE CEO John Warren in a statement. "The key to fraud prevention is knowing what to look out for. The Report to the Nations provides a big picture of the different aspects of occupational fraud and the impact it has on private companies, government agencies and businesses across a range of industries around the world."
