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

Exam Code: ACFE CFE
Exam Name: Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE)
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

Domain 1: Accounting Concepts

- 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

Domain 2: Financial Statement Fraud

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

Domain 3: Asset Misappropriation: Cash Receipts

- 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

Domain 4: Asset Misappropriation: Fraudulent Disbursements

- 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

Domain 5: Asset Misappropriation: Inventory and Other Assets

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

Domain 6: Corruption

- 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

Domain 7: Theft of Data and Intellectual Property

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

Domain 8: Identity Theft

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

Domain 9: Financial Institution Fraud

- 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

Domain 10: Payment Fraud

- 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

Domain 11: Insurance Fraud

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

Domain 12: Health Care Fraud

- 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

Domain 13: Consumer Fraud

- 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

Domain 14: Cyberfraud

- 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

Domain 15: Contract and Procurement Fraud

- 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

Domain 1: Overview of the Legal System

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

Domain 2: The Law Related to Fraud

- 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

Domain 3: Bankruptcy Fraud

- 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)

Domain 4: Securities Fraud

- 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)

Domain 5: Money Laundering

- 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)

Domain 6: Tax Fraud

- 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)

Domain 7: Individual Rights During Examinations

- 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

Domain 8: The Criminal Justice System

- 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

Domain 9: The Civil Justice System

- 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

Domain 10: Basic Principles of Evidence

- 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)

Domain 11: Testifying

- 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

Domain 1: Planning and Conducting a Fraud Examination

- 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

Domain 2: Collecting Evidence

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

Domain 3: Interview Theory and Application

- 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

Domain 4: Interviewing Suspects and Signed Statements

- 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

Domain 5: Covert Operations

- 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

Domain 6: Sources of Information

- 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

Domain 7: Data Analysis and Reporting Tools

- 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

Domain 8: Digital Forensics

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

Domain 9: Tracing Illicit Transactions

- 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

Domain 10: Report Writing

- 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

Domain 1: Understanding Criminal Behavior

- 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

Domain 2: White-Collar Crime

- 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

Domain 3: Corporate Governance

- 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)

Domain 4: Management’s Fraud-Related Responsibilities

- 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

Domain 5: Auditors’ Fraud-Related Responsibilities

- 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

Domain 6: Fraud Prevention Programs

- 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

Domain 7: Fraud Risk Assessment

- 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

Domain 8: Fraud Risk Management

- 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

Domain 9: Ethics for Fraud Examiners

- 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