When it comes to occupational fraud, corporate corruption and financial statement fraud; they make headlines. But, the most common type of fraud—and most likely to affect your company—is asset misappropriation. Asset misappropriation, which includes cash and inventory theft schemes, occurs in more than 83 percent of all reported fraud cases. The most common type of asset misappropriation frauds are billing schemes and the costliest type is check tampering. The good news? Discovering the crimes and recovering stolen assets can be aided through forensic accounting along with artificial intelligence.

Asset misappropriation schemes result in the lowest losses of the three major categories of fraud tracked by the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE), a median of $125,000 per scheme. Although significantly smaller than losses resulting from financial statement fraud (median loss of $975,000 per occurrence), a $125,000 loss would be hard for any business to withstand. And while the trade group’s study shows that more than 25 percent of cases were found within the first six months, more than a third lasted at least two years before being discovered. The longer the fraud continues, the larger the loss.