Technology was found to be a significant enabler for nearly a quarter of the 750 fraudsters investigated by forensic specialists across 78 countries, shows a new report by KPMG International.
By contrast, the ‘Global Profiles of the Fraudster’ report reveals that proactive analytics plays an astonishingly minor role in combating fraud, with only 3% of the fraudsters being detected in this manner. 
“The double-edged sword of technology in fraud is only going to get sharper,” said Phil Ostwalt, Global Head (Investigations) KPMG International. 
“As technology becomes more advanced, so too do the schemes to use it maliciously.  And while it’s clear that fraudsters are all too comfortable making use of technology to perpetrate a fraud, we are seeing little evidence that companies are doing the same to prevent it.  Threat-monitoring systems and data analytics are ‘must-have’s’ for organisations on the look-out for anomalous or suspicious behaviour.”
Issa Habash, Risk Consulting partner at KPMG in Qatar, said government and private organisations in the country have worked to enhance their control environment and reduce the risk of fraud.  
“Nevertheless and as indicated in the report and in line with the rest of the world, additional controls including automated controls are required to further reduce the risk of fraud. With more businesses and organisations looking at streamlining and cost optimisation measures to mitigate the impact of low oil prices, it is an ideal time to simultaneously, enhance corporate governance procedures and implement additional controls to protect against fraud,” Habash said. 
Tech-savvy fraudsters are using technology in a variety of ways to perpetrate frauds.  In these instances where fraudsters are using technology, about 24% entailed the creation of false or misleading information in accounting records, 20% involved fraudsters providing false or misleading information via email or another messaging platform and 13% involved perpetrators abusing permissible access to computer systems.