CFBE study guide
CFBE · Work through your exam, one topic at a time.
The CFBE (Certified Fraud Business Examiner) is a professional credential aimed at people who detect, prevent, and investigate fraud inside or on behalf of organizations. Typical candidates include internal auditors, compliance and risk officers, controllers, forensic accountants, procurement and finance managers, and investigators who need a business-process view of fraud rather than a purely legal or law-enforcement one. The CFBE study guide has 9 sections and about 3,835 words.
01Fraud Risk Governance and Program Design
Fraud risk governance is the accountability structure that decides how much fraud risk an organization accepts and who owns the response. CFBE questions in this domain test whether you can distinguish a working program from a policy binder: board and audit committee oversight, a named fraud risk owner, a documented appetite for fraud risk, and a response protocol that survives contact with a real allegation.
453 words, about 2 min02Fraud Risk Assessment and Data Analytics
Fraud risk assessment converts an abstract worry into a ranked, documented list of scheme-level exposures; analytics converts that list into tests that can run against full populations. CFBE questions test whether you can build a usable fraud risk register and match the right analytic to the right scheme.
454 words, about 2 min03Internal Control Design and Segregation of Duties
Internal control sets the boundaries within which fraud is possible. CFBE tests control design at the level of who can do what to which record, and segregation of duties at the level of which duty combinations create an opportunity that no single control will catch.
434 words, about 2 min04Financial Statement Fraud and Earnings Manipulation
Financial statement fraud is deliberate misstatement - usually of revenue, assets, or liabilities - to meet an expectation. CFBE tests the scheme taxonomy, the analytical signals, and the auditor's required skepticism, not just definitions.
413 words, about 2 min05Asset Misappropriation: Cash, Inventory, and Payroll
Asset misappropriation is the most frequent fraud category and the lowest in median loss. CFBE tests whether you can classify a scheme correctly, because classification determines the evidence you gather and the control you recommend.
422 words, about 2 min06Procurement, Vendor, and Third-Party Fraud
Procurement is the highest-value fraud surface in most organizations because it converts approval authority into money. CFBE tests three related exposures: corrupt collusion in bidding, fictitious and pass-through vendors, and third-party risk.
433 words, about 2 min07Bribery, Corruption, and Conflicts of Interest
Bribery and corruption questions reward precision on legal elements, because the statutes differ in ways examiners exploit: what counts as a payment, whose conduct is covered, and what defences exist. US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) has anti-bribery provisions (anything of value to a foreign official to obtain or retain business), books-and-records provisions, and internal-control provisions.
437 words, about 2 min08Cyber Fraud, Payment Systems, and Identity Theft
Cyber-enabled fraud is where payment rails, identity, and social engineering meet. CFBE tests whether you can name the scheme, identify the control that would have stopped it, and resist assuming that technology controls replace process.
398 words, about 2 min09Fraud Investigation, Evidence, and Interviewing
An investigation is a sequence, not a search. CFBE tests the order of steps, the weight and admissibility of evidence, and interviewing technique - including what you may not do.
391 words, about 2 min