Level of fraud awareness: A study on internal auditors

In the wake of the corporate fraud scandals at the turn of the 21st century, the perception of fraud has undergone a significant shift. Detection and prevention of fraud are no longer implicit components, and investors are now more attuned to the risk of fraud. As a result, there is increased interest in business relationships and safeguard mechanisms. National and international standards have clarified the duties and responsibilities of internal audit in relation to fraud. The concepts and methodologies developed to combat fraud have gained importance. While accountants, financial advisors, and independent auditors are mostly focused on in the studies, internal audit has come to the forefront as a strong line of defense in detecting and preventing fraud, as well as contributing to senior management regarding fraud. This study emphasises the importance of fraud awareness in combating fraud and explains the role of internal audit in fraud detection and prevention. A literature-based questionnaire was developed to measure the fraud awareness of internal auditors. The motivation behind this study was to contribute to the literature with a new synthesis by addressing a topic that has not been studied before and by conducting an empirical study that has not been done before. Within the framework of the survey application in which internal auditors working in different institutions and organizations in Türkiye participated, the effects of demographic profile, the use of fraud detection and prevention techniques and the use of technology-based techniques on fraud awareness were tested with various statistical analyzes. As a result, it has been observed that the fraud awareness of the internal auditors participating in the survey is very high, and there is no statistical difference in the averages of awareness according to the demographic profile considered within the scope of the research. Although surveillance of electronic correspondence, one of the fraud detection and prevention techniques, was stated as the least used method in organizations, even though its effectiveness was evaluated as high by internal auditors.