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Exam Information
Official specifications published by ACAMS
Exam Format
175 min
100
75
Specialist
Registration
$1995 USD
Pearson VUE or online proctoring
Validity
3 years
30 recertification credits in a three-year cycle (minimum 15 from ACAMS-provided training); Active ACAMS membership; Recertification fee and online application
Skills this practice test covers
- Design a fraud risk management framework with policies, prevention strategies, detection controls and control tests.
- Weigh the cost of fraud against the cost of the controls that reduce it.
- Spot transactional red flags tied to a product, a region or a customer type.
- Review detection rules so they match the firm's risk appetite and catch new fraud trends.
- Gather evidence, interview victims and suspects, and find the root cause of a fraud case.
- Recover lost funds through payment recall, SWIFT messages and chargeback rules.
Explore related topics
CAFS exam content
3 domains · 81 topics · 135 questions
BUILDING A FRAUD RISK MANAGEMENT PROGRAM40%65 questions
This domain is about the program around the fraud team: its framework, owners, governance and reporting. It also covers fraud law, Suspicious Activity Reports, recovery rules and the education of staff and customers.
Skills tested
- Map the fraud mitigation life cycle from prevention to investigation, with feedback loops that improve controls.
- Assign ownership of fraud policies to business lines and product owners.
- Run a gap analysis or assurance review of a fraud risk program and plan the fixes.
- Match each role's fraud risk to its controls and training needs.
- Apply the local rules for SAR processing, account blocking and payment recall.
Official topics
- Regulatory requirements and industry best practices to design and develop a fraud risk management framework specific to an industry or region
- Management of the fraud mitigation life cycle, including prevention, detection, investigation processes, and feedback loops to improve controls
- Components of a fraud risk management framework, including the development of policies, prevention strategies, detection controls, and control tests
- Ownership of fraud policies and procedures
- Operational impact of fraud across the organization
- Cost and exposure of fraud for the organization, the cost of implementing and maintaining mitigating controls, and performing cost-benefit analysis
- Governance and reporting associated with operating a robust fraud risk program
- Responsibilities of business lines and product owners, including product changes and expansion plans
- Level of fraud risk each role is subject to and the associated controls based on the risk of the roles, including training needs
- Current and seasonal trends to identify which risks are involved
- Fraud detection systems, the capabilities they provide, ensuring detection rules are designed and implemented based on your organization’s risk appetite and policies
- Transactional red flags specific to the product, geographic location, or customer type
- Fraud risks associated with the products and operational processes of the organization, so fraud patterns used across the different products can be identified
- Best practices for developing fraud controls for organizations
- Role of fraud detection tools in preventing and detecting fraud
- Business activities to identify the risk and educate business areas to identify risk themselves and report it
- Emerging technology capabilities that could be used by fraudsters
- Techniques for conducting gap analyses or assurance reviews to identify fraud risks in business activities in line with regulatory requirements and industry best practices
- How to conduct an assurance review of a fraud risk program and identify and implement improvements
- Victim profiling or which target group is most likely to fall victim to which types of fraud
- How to effectively educate all personnel in the organization about fraud, including methods and techniques in fraud-related subjects
- Business workflows, including activities outsourced by the business to third-party vendors
- Audit methodologies and sampling approaches adopted in fraud prevention review
- Major fraud types including internal and external fraud, 1st party, 2nd party, and 3rd party fraud impacting financial institutions
- Vulnerable customers and the relevant communication techniques used by the organization when corresponding with the customer
- Which fraud types have reasonable recovery potential and understanding of any regulatory requirements that need to be satisfied when undertaking a recovery
- How to effectively educate customers about fraud-related subjects
- Fraud prevention, anti-fraud laws, regional governance, and policies relevant to one’s geographic location
- Laws and regulatory requirements on handling fraud cases to mitigate losses, including account blocking, payment recall, and sending payment messages, e.g., SWIFT messages
- Regulatory environment, return and reclamation timeframes, and policies of financial institutions
- Methods for interpreting fraud-related intelligence and information to assist law enforcement and local authorities with open fraud investigations
- Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs), the policies and procedures for SAR processing, and the requirements your local regulators have in place to report suspicion
- Regulatory requirements governing customer communications
- Best practices for setting up a technology portfolio for the prevention and detection of fraud
- Functionality and limitations of anti-fraud technology solutions
- Data privacy and related regulations to understand what is permissible in regulatory governance as it relates to fraud prevention technology
- External data sources of relevant information, their credibility, vulnerability, potential bias and legal implications in an investigation
FRAUD DETECTION AND ANALYTICS30%38 questions
Detection turns data into alerts. Candidates read customer behavior, channel data and past fraud patterns, and keep detection rules and models up to date as trends change.
Skills tested
- Compare fraud techniques across online, mobile, face-to-face and telephone channels.
- Use trend analysis and horizon scanning to adjust fraud detection models.
- Configure transaction filtering systems to block suspicious payments and raise alerts.
- Conduct a rules review that improves detection without harming genuine customers.
- Judge the strengths and weaknesses of a dataset before using it to detect internal fraud.
Official topics
- Different fraud techniques related to different business channels (e.g., online, mobile, face-to-face [f2f], or telephone)
- Expected customer behavior and methods to identify “suspicious” behavior
- Effective fraud analytics techniques to identify patterns or trends of fraudulent transactions, e.g., trend analysis
- Emerging and seasonal trends requiring adjustments to current fraud detection models, e.g., horizon scanning
- How to balance fraud mitigation strategies within analytics that not only reduce risk but also have a positive impact on the client
- Interpreting structured and unstructured financial and non-financial data to make an initial assessment of the level of fraud threat
- Front-facing touchpoints available to users or fraudsters
- Behavioral elements associated with past fraudulent transactions
- How to engage with other lines of business and internal teams to gather data and detect fraud
- Fraud systems and capabilities to prevent fraud typologies, along with technical capabilities to amend prevention and detection systems rules
- Methods for conducting rules reviews to help the efficiency and effectiveness of detecting fraud
- Criminal frameworks used for penetration testing to identify how criminals may find weaknesses in systems
- How to use transaction filtering systems to block suspicious transactions and raise alerts for investigations
- Available data and analytics related to different business channels, based on systems being used
- Data available from technology platforms that would carry fraud indicators, e.g., multiple calls from the same number or geo-location with respect to different accounts or transfers from multiple victims to the same potential perpetrator, and how it can be used to mitigate specific types of fraud
- Strengths and weaknesses associated with the available datasets or technologies
- Available data and internal systems to analyze and detect internal fraud
- Internal data sources to understand how to best use customer data for fraud prevention and detection
- Technology solutions for analytics and detection of fraud
- New technology and data aggregation principles and the reason behind these methodologies
FRAUD INVESTIGATIONS30%32 questions
This domain follows a case from the first alert to its close. Candidates gather and weigh evidence, interview people, work with AML and cybersecurity teams, and write the report and recommendations.
Skills tested
- Decide when a case meets the policy threshold to open an investigation.
- Use OSINT and KYC, CDD and EDD records to build the facts of a case.
- Speak with a victim who does not accept the fraud, during a live case.
- Trace funds through SWIFT and clearing schemes such as CHAPS, SEPA and CHIPS.
- Recommend account closures, disposition of funds and the loss to record.
Official topics
- Thorough case investigations, including evidence gathering, interviewing victims and suspects, documenting case details and decisions
- How to identify relevant information using research and data analysis to support an investigation
- How to articulate a risk or gap identified during a fraud investigation and assist with identifying solutions on how to mitigate or close
- How to conduct fraud investigations to determine the root cause
- Internal systems and external tools to analyze events in response to intelligence or suspicion for the prevention and detection of fraud
- Methods for compiling and analyzing the relevant information for investigative reports
- Company fraud policies and procedures, including thresholds for knowing when and why to initiate an investigation
- Sources of relevant information, their credibility, and potential bias in an investigation
- External resources to help with complex investigations, including bulletins, working groups, or task forces comprising other industry bodies
- Deadlines and time management associated with investigations
- How to recognize, assist, and collaborate with other risk and control teams, e.g., cybersecurity, anti-money laundering (AML) or anti-bribery and corruption (ABC), in conducting joing investigations and seeking support from legal counsel
- Common fraud typologies, trends and techniques used by fraudsters and their associated red flags
- Knowledge of payment scheme rulebooks related to chargebacks and indemnity guidelines
- Effective open-source intelligence (OSINT) techniques and sources
- Proper investigative and interviewing techniques in fraud investigations for victims, fraudsters, whistleblowers, and witnesses
- Know your customer (KYC) / enhanced due diligence (EDD) / customer due diligence (CDD) / Source of Wealth (SoW), transaction history, and how the relevant information obtained within them can help to assess overall risk in a fraud investigation
- Methods and regulations to recover lost funds from fraud
- Global messaging networks such as SWIFT and clearing schemes such as CHIPS (US), CHAPS (UK), BACS (UK), SEPA (Europe), MEPS (Singapore), CIPS (China) and other Electronic Funds Transfer Schemes
- How to make recommendations to the business on concluding the investigation, including account closures, disposition of funds, and recording losses
- How to write an effective and accurate fraud investigation report for various purposes or stakeholders
- Acceptable data and evidence as recognized by local authoritative bodies, e.g., reporting suspicion and liaising with local FIU and law enforcement
- Impact of fraud on victims and how to best interact with victims of fraud (e.g., through tone of voice, etc.)
- How to effectively inform a customer they are the victim of fraud, especially in cases where the customer does not easily accept that they are being defrauded
- Effective interaction techniques with the client (victim) during a real-time fraud investigation to minimize interference from fraudster
Requirements
- Required: active ACAMS membership.
- Required: 40 eligibility credits, earned from education, years of experience and financial-crime training hours.
- Required: completion of the five CAFS certificate courses, from Building a Fraud Risk Management Program to Fraud Case Studies.
- A holder of an active specialist or advanced ACAMS certification, such as CAMS, meets the credit requirement automatically.
About the CAFS exam
CAFS is the ACAMS certification for staff who prevent, detect and investigate fraud at banks and non-bank financial institutions. It is not about accounting fraud. The exam asks about customer-facing fraud, such as authorized push payments, account takeover and first, second and third party fraud. It also asks how a firm builds the controls that protect client money. Passing earns the Certified Anti-Fraud Specialist credential, a specialist-level ACAMS title.
Building a fraud risk management program is the largest domain, so it gets the most attention in the PlanetCert practice test. The practice test also has questions on anti-fraud technology and on applied case studies, which match two of the five CAFS courses. Each explanation says why one control, report or recovery step fits the case better than the others. Study Mode suits the investigation questions, where the order of steps matters. Brainy AI Assistant can compare two clearing schemes, explain a red flag, or write a new case on the same fraud type.
How to earn the certification
- Earns
- Certified Anti-Fraud Specialist (CAFS)Specialist
CAFS holders recertify every three years with ACAMS training credits.
How to prepare for CAFS
- 1
Finish the five CAFS courses
The courses are required before the exam. Note which blueprint objectives each course covers, and mark the ones that feel new.
- 2
Learn local fraud and reporting rules
Several objectives ask about the rules where the candidate works: SAR requirements, customer communication rules, return and reclamation timeframes, and data privacy.
- 3
Give the program domain most time
Building a fraud risk management program is the largest domain. Study framework parts, ownership, governance, cost-benefit analysis and assurance reviews until each can be explained with an example.
- 4
Walk one case end to end
Take one fraud type, such as an authorized push payment scam, from first alert through evidence, victim contact, payment recall and the final report.
- 5
Practise by domain, then a full run
Work through the CAFS practice test one domain at a time in Study Mode, then take a full run in Timed Mode. Ask Brainy AI Assistant about any red flag or clearing scheme that still causes mistakes.
Start a timed CAFSrun
ACAMS's own CAFS program has five certificate courses: Building a Fraud Risk Management Program, Fraud Detection and Analytics, Fraud Investigations, Technologies to Combat Fraud, and Fraud Case Studies. The package adds a study guide, flashcards and a practice exam, with an optional Virtual Classroom Series.
Who CAFS is for
- Fraud analysts and investigators at banks, payment firms and other financial institutions.
- Fraud managers who own a firm's fraud policies, controls and reporting.
- AML staff who hold CAMS and want to add fraud prevention and investigation skills.
- Risk, audit and product staff who review fraud controls or launch new products.
Typical job titles: Fraud analyst · Fraud investigator · Fraud risk manager · Financial crime investigator · Fraud prevention manager · Compliance officer
CAFS glossary
18 terms from the exam objectives and the vendor's official material, each defined in a sentence.
- Account takeover
- Fraud in which a criminal gains control of a real customer's account and uses it.
- Authorized push payments
- Payments the genuine customer sends themselves after a fraudster tricks them into it.
- Chargebacks
- Reversals of a card payment under the payment scheme's rules, often after the cardholder reports fraud.
- Cost-benefit analysis
- A comparison of what fraud costs a firm with what it costs to build and run the controls against it.
- Enhanced due diligence (EDD)
- Deeper checks on a higher-risk customer, beyond the standard customer due diligence.
- Fraud mitigation life cycle
- The cycle of fraud prevention, detection and investigation, where lessons from each case feed back into better controls.
- Fraud risk management framework
- The set of policies, prevention strategies, detection controls and control tests a firm uses to manage its fraud risk.
- Horizon scanning
- Watching for new and seasonal fraud trends early, so detection models can change before losses grow.
- Open-source intelligence (OSINT)
- Information gathered from public sources, such as websites and public records, to support an investigation.
- Payment recall
- A request to the receiving bank to return a payment that was sent because of fraud.
- Red flags
- Warning signs that a transaction, customer or activity may involve fraud.
- Risk appetite
- The amount of risk a firm decides to accept; fraud detection rules are set to match it.
- Source of Wealth (SoW)
- Where a customer's total wealth came from, such as earnings from work, a business or an inheritance.
- Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs)
- Reports a firm files with the authorities when it suspects that activity on an account is criminal.
- SWIFT
- A global messaging network that banks use to send payment instructions and messages to each other.
- Transaction filtering systems
- Systems that check payments against rules and block suspicious ones or raise an alert for review.
- Victim profiling
- Finding which groups of people are most likely to fall victim to each type of fraud.
- Vulnerable customers
- Customers who need extra care and adapted communication, for example because of age, illness or hardship.
Related practice tests
- CAMS-FCIAdvanced CAMS-Financial Crimes Investigations
- CAMS-RMAdvanced CAMS-Risk Management
- Advanced-CAMS-AuditAdvanced Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist - Audit
- CAFCACertified AML FinTech Compliance Associate
- CAMSCertified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist (6th edition)