Profesional Skepticism

Certified Fraud Examiners (CFE) are professional individuals who are trained and certified to detect, prevent, and deter fraud. The organization in charge of issuing the CFE designation is the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE). Candidates for the CFE certificate must meet certain educational and professional requirements and pass a rigorous exam that covers the principles of fraud examination in order to receive the CFE credentials.

According to the qualification section of the ACFE website the candidates’ eligibility to obtain the CFE credentials is based on a point system that awards points for education, professional affiliations, and experience. In order to be accepted to sit for the exam, candidates must obtain a minimum of 40 points. These points can be obtained through education or in combination with professional experience and professional affiliation. In general, applicants possess a bachelor degree which counts as 40 points. Although no specific field of study is required, having exposure to the accounting fundamentals will help the candidate prepare for the examination. The ACFE also allows candidates to substitute up to two years of fraud-professional experience for each year of academic study. Once the candidates meet the minimum 40 points, they become eligible to sit for the CFE exam. This exam includes 500 questions divided into four sections. The candidates must be well prepared to take this exam because they only have 75 seconds to answer each question and must obtain a minimum of 75 percent on each section to successfully pass the exam.

The first component of the exam is fraud prevention and deterrence. This section tests the candidates’ knowledge of the reasons people commit fraud and ways to prevent it. Some of the topics covered under this section are crime causation, white collar crime, fraud prevention, fraud risk assessment, and the ACFE Code of Professional Ethics. The second section of the exam covers the different types...