ACFE-CFE Exam Format | Course Contents | Outline | Syllabus | Objectives

Total Number of Questions: 400 questions in total (Each of the four sections contains 100 questions each)

Question Types: Multiple-choice and True/False.

Time Allotted: 8 hours total (Candidates are given 2 hours per section)

Passing Marks: A minimum score of 75% is required on each individual section to pass.

Section 1: Financial Transactions and Fraud Schemes

• The accounting equation
• Balance sheet/statement of financial position
• Income statement/statement of financial performance/statement of operations/profit-andloss statement/statement of changes in financial position
• Statement of cash flows
• Cash vs. accrual accounting
• Various accounting frameworks (GAAP, IFRS, etc.) and when they are used

• What financial statement fraud is
• Types of financial statement fraud schemes
• Financial statement analysis

• What cash skimming is
• Types of cash skimming schemes
• Cash skimming schemes: Prevention and detection
• What cash larceny is
• Types of cash larceny schemes
• Cash larceny: Prevention and detection

• Types of register disbursement schemes
• Register disbursement schemes: Prevention and detection
• Electronic payment tampering: Prevention and detection
• Types of billing schemes
• Billing schemes: Prevention and detection
• Types of payroll fraud schemes
• Payroll fraud schemes: Prevention and detection
• Types of expense reimbursement schemes
• Expense reimbursement schemes: Prevention and detection

• Misuse of inventory and other assets
• Types of inventory theft schemes
• Concealing inventory shrinkage
• Inventory schemes: Prevention and detection

• What is corruption?
• Types of corruption schemes (e.g., bribery, kickback schemes, conflicts of interest)
• Methods of making illegal payments
• Corruption schemes: Prevention and detection

• Corporate espionage vs. competitive intelligence
• Sources of competitive intelligence
• How information is lost or stolen
• Safeguarding proprietary information from insider and external threats

• Types and methods of identity theft
• How identity thieves steal information
• Identity theft schemes: Prevention and detection

• Types of financial institution fraud schemes (e.g., new account schemes, loan and mortgage fraud schemes)
• Red flags of financial institution fraud
• Financial institution fraud: Prevention and detection

• Types of payment fraud schemes (e.g., electronic funds transfer fraud schemes, payment card fraud schemes, mobile payment schemes)
• Payment fraud schemes: Prevention and detection

• Types of insurance fraud schemes (e.g., vehicle insurance schemes, agent/broker fraud)
• Red flags of insurance fraud
• Insurance fraud: Prevention and detection

• Types of health care fraud schemes (e.g., fraud by the insurance company/group, fraud by the patient, fraud by service providers)
• Health care fraud: Prevention and detection

• Types of consumer fraud schemes (e.g., advance-fee schemes, elder fraud, pyramid schemes, Ponzi schemes)
• Red flags of consumer fraud
• Consumer fraud: Prevention and detection

• Information security goals and control objectives
• Types of electronic social engineering schemes (e.g., business email compromise, phishing)
• Types of malware (e.g., viruses, ransomware)
• Combatting insider threats
• Cyberfraud: Prevention and detection
• Responding to cybersecurity incidents

• Basic elements and phases of contracting
• Types of contract and procurement fraud schemes (e.g., collusion with employees, collusion among contractors, performance schemes)
• Red flags of contract and procurement fraud
• Contract and procurement fraud: Prevention and detection

Section 2: Law

• Criminal, civil, and administrative actions for fraud
• Civil vs. common law systems
• Adversarial vs. inquisitorial processes
• Challenges in international cases

• Misrepresentation of material facts
• Breach of trust offenses
• Mail fraud and wire fraud
• False claims and documents
• Corruption (e.g., bribery, conflicts of interest) and related international rules and standards
• Perjury
• Conspiracy
• Concealment of material facts/obstruction

• Governance and management in bankruptcy proceedings
• Types of bankruptcy filings
• Role of key parties in bankruptcies (e.g., administrator/trustee, courts)
• Types of bankruptcy fraud schemes (e.g., bustout schemes, concealment of assets)

• Securities laws and regulation
• International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) recommendations
• The role of self-regulatory organizations
• Components of investment contracts
• Types of securities fraud schemes (e.g., insider trading, unsuitable recommendations)

• Money laundering stages
• Methods of laundering money (e.g., using front businesses, emerging payment technologies, money services businesses)
• Components of anti-money laundering programs
• Anti-money laundering regulations and guidance (e.g., Financial Action Task Force [FATF] Recommendations)

• Tax avoidance vs. tax evasion
• Common defenses to tax evasion
• Types of tax evasion schemes (e.g., income and wealth tax evasion, consumption tax schemes)

• Employees’ duty to cooperate
• Employees’ contractual rights
• Whistleblower legal protections
• Employees’ rights in private actions vs. government actions
• Rules regarding searches and surveillance in the workplace
• Employees’ expectation of privacy
• Causes of action for violations of employee rights (e.g., invasion of privacy, intentional infliction of emotional distress, defamation, false imprisonment)
• Data privacy and transfer laws (e.g., General Data Protection Regulation [GDPR])
• Consequences for failure to preserve evidence

• Corporate criminal liability
• International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR)
• Finders of fact in criminal cases
• Criminal proceedings, sentencing, and restitution
• Criminal discovery
• The burden of proof in criminal cases
• Prosecutorial discretion and bargaining agreements
• Corporate deferred prosecution agreements
• Appeals

• Beginning the civil action
• Civil discovery and discovery methods
• Preservation of evidence in civil litigation
• Securing assets before judgment
• Trial of a civil case
• The burden of proof in civil cases
• Counterclaims
• Alternative dispute resolution
• Civil remedies and recovering fraud losses

• Direct vs. circumstantial evidence
• Admissibility of evidence (e.g., authentication, chain of custody)
• Impeachment
• Evidentiary privileges and protections (e.g., legal professional privilege, litigation privilege, waiver of privilege)

• Purpose of testifying expert witnesses
• Appointment of experts
• Qualifying to testify as an expert witness
• Direct testimony considerations
• Cross-examination considerations and techniques

Section 3: Investigation

• Definition of fraud examination
• Considerations in planning a fraud examination
• The basis of predication in fraud examination
• Developing a fraud response plan
• Preserving confidentiality in a fraud examination

• Types of evidence (e.g., documentary, digital, testimonial)
• Rules for the collection of evidence
• Methods of obtaining evidence
• Disposal of evidence

• Purpose of the interview
• Planning for interviews
• Documenting the interview
• Questioning techniques (e.g., sequence of questions, question types)
• Interviewee’s legal and administrative rights
• Providing an introduction and building rapport
• Assessing the interviewee’s behavior (e.g., observing reactions, establishing a baseline, considering behaviors together)
• Dealing with resistance and difficult/volatile people
• Verbal and nonverbal clues to deception
• Closing the interview

• Purpose of the admission-seeking interview
• Preparing the interview room
• Rules for admission-seeking interviews
• Asking admission-seeking questions
• Steps in an admission-seeking interview (e.g., making the accusation, countering responses)
• Rules for obtaining signed statements

• What a covert operation is
• Documenting covert operations
• Legal issues in covert operations (e.g., recordings, entrapment)
• Procedures and considerations when using sources and informants

• Uses of external sources of information in fraud examinations
• Types of public records (e.g., local government records, court records, corporate filings, securities records)
• Types of nonpublic records (e.g., credit reports, bank records)
• Methods for gaining access to nonpublic records
• Legalities of pretexting
• General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) application
• Guidelines and use of online databases
• Use of internet sources (e.g., social media, deep web, dark web, archives)
• Documenting electronic evidence obtained online

• Data analysis functions and their applications (e.g., Benford’s law analysis, sorting, joining)
• Advanced data analysis (e.g., unstructured data and textual analytics, artificial intelligence, predictive modeling)
• Data visualization and reporting
• Phases in the data analysis process

• Planning for digital evidence collection
• Types of files to be recovered
• Sources of digital evidence
• The phases of a digital evidence investigation

• The process of tracing illicit transactions
• Obtaining and examining bank records
• Types of financial records used to trace assets (e.g., correspondent banking, wire transfer records, electronic payment records, loan records, credit card records)
• Methods of tracing and analyzing financial transactions (e.g., asset method, expenditures method)
• Emerging technology implications in tracing illicit transactions
• Locating hidden assets
• Asset forfeiture/recovery

• Characteristics and structure of a good report
• Purpose of a fraud examination report
• Rules and best practices for fraud examination reports (e.g., guidance pertaining to conclusions and opinions, attachments, audience)
• Providing follow-up and recommendations

Section 4: Fraud Prevention and Deterrence

• The use of punishment vs. reinforcement to modify behavior
• Theory of differential association
• Social control theory and social learning theory
• Differential reinforcement theory
• Rational choice theory
• Routine activities theory

• Organizational opportunity for white-collar crime
• Factors that contribute to white-collar crime
• Effects of white-collar crime on individuals and society
• Prosecutions for white-collar criminals
• Organizational vs. occupational crime
• Factors that contribute to organizational crime (e.g., structure, specialization, profit pressure)
• Ways organizations rationalize questionable conduct
• Ways to control organizational crime (e.g., compliance, deterrence)
• Components of the fraud triangle
• Research and trends in occupational fraud

• What corporate governance is
• The parties involved in corporate governance
• Establishing a corporate governance framework
• Principles of corporate governance
• Sources of corporate governance guidance (e.g., OECD, Treadway Commission)

• Definition of internal control
• COSO’s five components of internal control
• Management’s responsibility for the anti-fraud program
• Elements of an effective anti-fraud compliance program

• External auditors’ fraud-related responsibilities
• External auditors’ reporting requirements
• Financial statement materiality
• Internal control findings
• Internal auditors’ fraud-related responsibilities
• Internal auditors’ reporting requirements
• Government auditors’ fraud-related responsibilities
• Government auditors’ reporting requirements

• Increasing the perception of detection
• Employee anti-fraud education
• Reporting programs and whistleblower protection programs
• Reinforcing an enterprise-wide anti-fraud culture (e.g., tone at the top, organizationalstructure, performance management and measurement, hiring policies)
• Response to and communication of fraud incidents
• Minimizing employee pressures to commit fraud
• Developing a formal anti-fraud policy
• Developing an ethics program

• The role and objective of anti-fraud controls
• Types of anti-fraud controls
• Purpose and objectives of a fraud risk assessment
• Elements of an effective fraud risk assessment
• Types of fraud risks
• Steps in conducting a fraud risk assessment
• Ways to respond to residual risks
• Reporting the fraud risk assessment results
• The relationship between the fraud risk assessment and the internal/external audit functions

• What risk management is
• Risk management frameworks (e.g., ISO 31000, COSO Enterprise Risk Management—Integrated Framework)
• Principles of fraud risk management
• Roles and responsibilities for fraud risk management
• Objectives of a fraud risk management program
• Defining risk appetite
• Fraud risk management program compliance and oversight
• Third-party fraud risk management

• Purpose of a code of ethics
• Relationship between moral philosophy, ethics, and the law
• Implications of engaging in illegal or unethical conduct
• Identifying and avoiding conflicts of interest
• Integrity requirements
• Professional skepticism
• Giving opinions and drawing conclusions
• Dealing with privileged and confidential information
• Ensuring proper qualifications for engagements