Anti-Fraud Controls Certificate Program Practice Test

Skills this practice test covers

• Choose physical, logical and data storage controls that keep data from being lost or stolen.
• Match a fraud scheme, such as skimming or channel stuffing, to the preventive control that stops it.
• Interpret the components and principles of the COSO Internal Control Framework.
• Recognize the inherent limitations of internal control, such as collusion that defeats separation of duties.
• Run a control self-assessment, test anti-fraud controls and report the deficiencies found.
• Assess the data risks that BYOD, cloud storage and social media bring.

3 domains · 10 topics · 108 questions

Requirements

• No formal prerequisites: anyone can enroll in the program.
• Recommended: a fundamental knowledge of audit procedures.

About the AFC-CERT exam

How to earn the certification

Earns

Anti-Fraud Controls CertificateCertificate

The certificate does not expire and needs no maintenance.

After

• CFE Certified Fraud Examiner

  The ACFE's full credential, with its own eligibility rules and a four-section exam. This certificate does not count toward those rules.

• COSO-FRM COSO Fraud Risk Management Certificate Program

  A certificate program on managing fraud risk with COSO guidance.

How to prepare for AFC-CERT

1. 1

   Treat each course as its own block

   Each course ends in its own exam, so study them as three separate blocks. Finish one block and pass its exam before starting the next.

2. 2

   Draw the COSO cube from memory

   Sketch the objectives across the top, the components down the front and the levels of the organization on the side. Then place a few controls from a familiar workplace in the right cells.

3. 3

   Pair every scheme with its control

   Fraud schemes and their preventive controls carry the most practice questions. Build a two-column table with each scheme, from fictitious revenue to bribery and kickbacks, beside the control that blocks it.

4. 4

   Run a mock control self-assessment

   Pick one process, such as accounts payable, and rate its controls the way a CSA workshop would. List the deficiencies found and write a short note to management on each one.

5. 5

   Review misses in Study Mode

   Work through the AFC-CERT practice test one course at a time in Study Mode. After each miss, ask Brainy AI Assistant why the chosen control fails and which control type would fit.

   Start a timed AFC-CERTrun

The ACFE delivers the program as three online self-study courses, one for each domain on this page. Together they earn NASBA-approved CPE credits.

Who AFC-CERT is for

• Holders of the CFE credential who want to show more depth in anti-fraud controls.
• Anti-fraud professionals who are not yet ready for the CFE exam.
• Auditors and compliance staff in high-fraud-risk roles who own or review internal controls.
• People with earlier anti-fraud training who now need to know controls in detail.

Typical job titles: Internal auditor · Fraud examiner · Compliance officer · Risk analyst · Forensic accountant · Controls analyst

AFC-CERT glossary

18 terms from the exam objectives and the vendor's official material, each defined in a sentence.

Bid-rigging and collusion

A corruption scheme in which bidders or insiders secretly fix a tender so that a chosen vendor wins.

Bring Your Own Device (BYOD)

A policy that lets staff use their own phones and laptops for work, which brings data security risks.

Cash theft (skimming, larceny)

Asset misappropriation in which cash is taken before it is recorded (skimming) or after it is recorded (larceny).

Channel stuffing

A financial statement fraud in which a company ships distributors more goods than they need, to inflate sales for a period.

Compensating controls

Extra controls, such as a manager's review, that reduce risk when the usual control, like separation of duties, is not possible.

Computer-assisted audit techniques (CAATs)

Software methods that let auditors test whole data sets, for example to find duplicate payments.

Continuous Controls Monitoring

Automated checks that test controls all the time, instead of only at set audit dates.

Control self-assessment (CSA) methodology

A method in which managers and staff rate the controls in their own area, often in facilitated workshops.

Corrective controls

Controls that fix a problem once it is found, such as restoring data from a backup.

COSO cube structure

COSO's picture of internal control as a cube: objectives on top, components on the front and the levels of the organization on the side.

COSO Internal Control Framework

The model from the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission that organizations use to design and judge internal controls.

Data Loss Prevention (DLP) tools

Software that finds sensitive data and blocks it from leaving the organization through email, uploads or removable media.

Detective controls

Controls that find fraud or errors after they happen, such as reconciliations and exception reports.

Directive controls

Controls that tell people what to do, such as policies, procedures and training.

Dual-purpose testing

A test in which one sample checks both that a control works and that the transactions are recorded correctly.

Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA)

A US law that bans bribes to foreign officials and requires covered companies to keep accurate books and internal controls.

Inherent Limitations of Internal Control

The reasons any control system can fail, such as collusion between staff, human error and cost limits.

Separation of Duties

Splitting a task such as approving, paying and recording a purchase between different people, so that no one person controls it end to end.