Even with the difficulties in measuring fraud, most people believe that fraud is a growing problem. Both the numbers of frauds committed and the total dollar amounts lost from fraud seem to be increasing. Longitudinal studies that assets fraud levels over time are needed. Although slightly different from fraud such longitudinal studies of cheating in school have been conducted. Table 1.1 shows how dramatically the incidences of cheating have increasing.
Table 1.1 cheating in school
| High schoolers who said they had cheated on an exam in last 12 month | Year
1996 |
Percent
64% |
Year
1998 |
Percent
70% |
Study Authors
Josephson Institute of Ethics |
| College students across the nation who admitted to cheating in high school. | 1940s | 20% | Present | 70% | Stephen Davis, psychology professor at Emporia State University |
| High school students admitting to cheating on exam in last year | 1992 | 61% | 2002 | 75-98% | Josephson Institute of Ethics survey of 12. 000 students |
| High school students who had cheated in past 12 month | 2000 | 71% | 2002 | 74% | Josephson Institute of Ethics |
| Students who had stolen | 2000 | 35% | 2002 | 38% | Josephson Institute of Ethics |
| Willing to lie to get a job. | 2000 | 28% | 2002 | 39% | Josephson Institute of Ethics |
| Number of students self reporting instances of unper mitted collaboration at nine medium to large state universities | 1963 | 11% | 1993 | 49% | Donald L. Mc. Cade of Rutgers University |
| Percentage of American high school students who judged cheating to common among their peers | 1940s | 20% | 1997 | 88% | Who`s Who Among American High School Students survey of 3,210 “high achievers“ In 1997 |
| The number of high school students who admitted using a cheat sheet on test | 1969 | 34% | 1989 | 68% | Study by Fred Schab at the University of Georgia |
| Students who admitting to letting others copy their work | 1969 | 58% | 1989 | 98% | Study by Fred Schab at the University of Georgia |
Because fraud affects how much we pay for goods and service each of us pays not only a portion of the fraud bill out also for the detection and investigation of fraud. It is almost impossible to read a newspaper or business magazine with out coming across multiple incidents of fraud.
Even more alarming than the increasing number of fraud cases is the size of discovered frauds. In earlier times, if a criminal wanted to steal from his or her employer, the perpetrator had to physically remove the assets from the business premise. Because of fear of being caught with the goods frauds tented to be small. With the advent of computers, the Internet and complex accounting systems employees now need only to make a telephone call misdirect purchase invoices bribe a supplier manipulate a computer program or simply push a key on the keyboard to misplace company assets. Because physical possession of stolen property is no longer required and because it is just as easy to program a computer to embezzle 1000000 $ as it is $ 1,000, the size and number of frauds have increased tremendously.