Certified Forensic Accounting Professional
CFAP (Certified Forensic Accounting Professional) is a forensic accounting and fraud investigation certification awarded by the Indiaforensic Center of Studies, delivered globally in partnership with Riskpro Learning.
The Global Certification in Forensic Accounting and Fraud Detection (CFAP) is a practical, video-led program covering the two core sides of forensic accounting — frauds committed FOR the business (financial statement manipulation, revenue recognition schemes) and frauds committed AGAINST the business (payroll, procurement, inventory, cash, and commercial bribery) — plus dedicated modules on financial-sector, banking, and e-commerce fraud. Every module ends in a graded quiz, and a comprehensive final exam is required for certification.
At a glance
- Certification
- Certified Forensic Accounting Professional
- Provider
- Indiaforensic Center of Studies, with Riskpro Learning
- Format
- Self-paced online certification
- Modules
- 11
- Video lessons
- 48
- Learning content
- 2h 50m
- Practical component
- CFAP Forensic Audit Simulator
- Assessment
- Module quizzes, a final examination and the graded CFAP Forensic Audit Simulator
- Certificate
- Included, with a verifiable certificate ID
- Access
- Lifetime
- Price
- $499 one-time
What You'll Learn
Video lessons are the theory half of this certification. The other half is a live, graded case-investigation simulation -- red-flag triage, evidence investigation, and a forensic findings report write-up -- worked against a real 10-case library spanning banking, stock-market, and corporate fraud.
1Basics of Accounting 20 min
- Understanding the concept of Financial Accounting
- What is a Capital Expenditure?
- Introduction to Purchases and Accounts Payable
- What is Sales and Accounts Receiable?
Show all 7 lessons
- Inventory and Storage Warehousing
- What are financial statement?
- Understanding external audits of financial statement
2Overview of Forensic Accounting 11 min
- What are financial statement?
- Introduction to Frauds and Forensic Accounting
- Forensic Audit in India
3Frauds for Business 16 min
- Financial Statement Frauds
- Revenue Recognition Scheme
- Case Studies related to Revenue Recognition
- Manipulation of Non Revenue Components
4Fraud Against the Business 20 min
- Intellectual Property Frauds (Reading Material)
- Type of Fraud Against Business
- Payroll Frauds
- Commercial Bribery and Corruption
Show all 6 lessons
- Inventory Frauds
- Cash Frauds
5Stock Market Frauds 13 min
- Insurance Fraud
- Stock Market Fraud
- Microcap Frauds
6Banking Frauds 22 min
- Overview of Frauds in Banking Sector
- What is ATM?
- Background of ATM Crimes
- Types of ATM Crimes
Show all 6 lessons
- Shoulder Surfing and Other ATM Crimes
- Offsite ATM Crimes
7Trojans & Malwares 22 min
- ATM Malware
- Banking Trojans
- Overview of Hacker and Hacking
- Overview of Computer Forensic
Show all 5 lessons
- Computer Forensic Tools
8Overview of Ecommerce Frauds 14 min
- What is eCommerce?
- Impact of Frauds on E-commerce companies
- Frauds in E-Auctions
- Case Study- Vendor Frauds
9Types of eCommerce Frauds 21 min
- Broad Categories of eCommerce Frauds
- Logistics Frauds
- Chargeback Frauds
- Triangulation Fraud
Show all 7 lessons
- Clean Frauds
- Loyalty points related Frauds
- Zapper Frauds
10Preventing eCommerce Frauds 7 min
- Detection of eCommerce Frauds
- Red Flags of eCommerce Frauds
11Simulation Lab CFAP Forensic Audit Simulator
Frequently Asked Questions
What is CFAP?
CFAP (Certified Forensic Accounting Professional) is a forensic accounting and fraud investigation certification awarded by the Indiaforensic Center of Studies and delivered globally in partnership with Riskpro Learning, covering forensic audit, fraud detection, and investigative report writing.
Who awards CFAP?
CFAP is a professional designation awarded by the Indiaforensic Center of Studies and delivered globally in partnership with Riskpro Learning. CFAP-certified members are currently working in 19 countries.
Who is eligible for CFAP?
Any graduate with at least 3 years of professional experience is eligible for CFAP. CA students who have completed 3 years of articleship are also eligible, provided they submit evidence of articleship completion.
What does CFAP cover?
CFAP covers forensic accounting fundamentals, frauds committed for and against a business (financial statement manipulation, revenue recognition fraud, payroll, procurement, inventory and cash fraud, commercial bribery), stock market frauds, banking frauds, and e-commerce fraud (including Trojans and malware used in digital fraud), together with a live, graded case-investigation simulation lab.
What is the CFAP syllabus?
A 20-chapter syllabus spanning forensic accounting and fraud investigation, including the distinction between statutory audit and forensic audit, red flags and fraud schemes, and how to write a forensic investigation report.
How many questions are in the CFAP exam?
The CFAP final examination is a 20-question multiple-choice examination.
How long is the CFAP exam?
The CFAP final examination has a 2-hour time limit.
What is the CFAP passing score?
A 75% pass mark is required on the CFAP final examination to earn the certification.
Is CFAP online?
Yes — CFAP is fully online: self-paced video lessons plus a live, graded case-investigation simulation lab, with the final examination also delivered online.
How much does CFAP cost?
CFAP is $499 as a one-time payment, with lifetime access to the course.
How long does CFAP take?
CFAP includes 2 hours of core video content across 37 lessons, plus the CFAP Forensic Audit Simulator — a live, graded 10-case investigation and report-writing exercise. Working through the video content, the simulation lab, and the final exam, most learners complete CFAP within about 180 days.
What career roles can CFAP support?
CFAP's curriculum — forensic audit, fraud red flags, banking and stock-market fraud detection, and investigative report writing — is built to prepare learners for roles such as forensic accountant, fraud investigator, internal auditor, and compliance/risk analyst, particularly in banking- and capital-markets-facing functions.
Is CFAP recognised internationally?
CFAP is delivered globally in partnership with Riskpro Learning, and CFAP-certified members are currently working in 19 countries.
Do I get a certificate?
Yes — a certificate is issued on completing the course and passing the final examination, carrying a unique, third-party-verifiable ID (see the CFAP certificate verification page).
Key Terms & Glossary
21 terms used in this course, in plain language.
- Forensic Accounting
- The application of accounting, auditing, and investigative skills to examine financial records for evidence of fraud, financial misconduct, or disputes suitable for use in legal proceedings.
- Fraud Triangle
- A framework describing the three conditions typically present when fraud occurs: pressure (an incentive or financial need), opportunity (a weakness in controls that allows the fraud to be committed and concealed), and rationalization (the perpetrator's justification for the act).
- Red Flag Indicator
- An observable pattern, anomaly, or piece of behavior that, on its own, does not prove fraud but is statistically associated with it and warrants closer examination.
- Predication
- The totality of circumstances that would lead a reasonable, professionally trained person to believe a fraud has occurred, is occurring, or will occur — the documented basis required before opening a fraud investigation.
- Forensic Audit
- An examination of an organization's financial records conducted specifically to develop evidence for use in a legal or disciplinary proceeding, distinct from a routine financial-statement audit which is designed to give reasonable, not absolute, assurance against fraud.
- Benford's Law
- A statistical observation that in many naturally occurring sets of numerical data, the leading digit is more often a small number (1 much more than 9) than a uniform distribution would predict — used by forensic accountants to flag transaction data sets whose digit distribution deviates unusually, a common indicator of fabricated numbers.
- Financial Statement Fraud
- The intentional misstatement or omission of amounts or disclosures in financial statements to deceive users — most often to inflate reported earnings, assets, or revenue, or to understate liabilities and expenses.
- Revenue Recognition Fraud
- Recording revenue before it has actually been earned, or recording revenue that does not exist at all — one of the most common forms of financial statement fraud because revenue is the figure most closely tied to reported profitability and stock price.
Show all 21 terms
- Channel Stuffing
- A revenue recognition scheme where a company ships more product to distributors than they can realistically sell, recording the shipment as revenue in the current period while distributors are typically given extended return rights or informal understandings that the excess will come back.
- Round-Tripping
- A scheme in which two or more parties exchange assets, services, or funds with each other in a way that creates the appearance of new, arm's-length revenue or activity for both sides, when no real economic substance changed hands.
- Excess reserves or accruals deliberately overstated in a strong period, then released back into income in a weaker period to smooth reported earnings and disguise the company's real volatility.
- Payroll Fraud
- Any scheme in which an employee causes a business to issue an improper or inflated payment through its payroll system — including ghost employees, falsified hours, and unauthorized rate changes.
- Ghost Employee Scheme
- A payroll fraud where a fictitious person, or a real person no longer employed, is kept on the payroll so that paychecks continue to be issued and diverted to the perpetrator or an accomplice.
- Commercial Bribery
- A payment or benefit given to an employee of one company by an outside party (often a vendor) to influence that employee's business decisions against their employer's interest, without the employer's knowledge or consent.
- Kickback
- A specific form of commercial bribery in which a vendor returns a portion of an inflated payment to the employee who approved or steered the purchase, usually in exchange for continued or preferential business.
- Inventory Shrinkage
- The loss of inventory between what accounting records show should be on hand and what a physical count actually finds — a red flag that can result from theft, but also from legitimate causes, which is why forensic review of shrinkage looks at pattern and concentration, not the raw number alone.
- Lapping
- A cash-fraud concealment technique where an employee who has stolen a customer payment covers the shortfall by applying a later customer's payment to the first customer's account, and so on — a rolling concealment that unravels quickly once payments are reconciled independently.
- Skimming
- The theft of cash or receivables before they are ever recorded in the accounting system — because the funds never appear on the books at all, skimming leaves no direct accounting discrepancy and is typically detected through surveillance, tips, or statistical analysis rather than a books-and-records mismatch.
- Check Kiting
- A scheme exploiting the time delay ("float") between when a check is deposited and when it actually clears, by moving funds between accounts at different banks to create artificial, temporary balances that do not reflect real, available funds.
- A transaction between a company and a party with whom it has a pre-existing relationship (an officer, a major shareholder, an affiliated entity) — not inherently fraudulent, but a common vehicle for concealing self-dealing, asset diversion, or artificially inflated results, and therefore a standard area of forensic scrutiny.
- Suspicious Activity Report (SAR)
- A report a financial institution files with its national Financial Intelligence Unit when it detects a transaction or pattern of transactions it has reasonable grounds to suspect involves fraud, money laundering, or other criminal activity — the same reporting concept forensic investigators in a banking-fraud engagement need to recognize, even though preparing one is primarily an AML/compliance function.
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Summary & Key Takeaways
CFAP is a forensic accounting and fraud investigation certification awarded by the Indiaforensic Center of Studies and delivered globally in partnership with Riskpro Learning, covering forensic audit, fraud red flags, and investigative report writing across 48 video lessons across 11 modules, plus the CFAP Forensic Audit Simulator. According to the ACFE's 2024 Report to the Nations (acfe.com), organizations lose an average of more than $1.5 million per occupational fraud case -- the real-world cost the forensic skills in this curriculum are built to catch earlier. A certificate, carrying a unique, third-party-verifiable ID, is issued on completing the course and passing the final examination.
References & Further Reading
Official sources
- ACFE (Association of Certified Fraud Examiners) -- 2024 Report to the Nations — Found organizations lose an average of more than $1.5 million per occupational fraud case.
- SEBI (Securities and Exchange Board of India) — Regulates insider trading and market manipulation in Indian securities markets.
- RBI (Reserve Bank of India) — Issues guidance governing Indian banks' fraud-risk-management obligations.
- FinCEN (US Treasury Financial Crimes Enforcement Network) — Sets Suspicious Activity Report (SAR) requirements relevant to banking-fraud investigations.
Further reading
- Top Five Best Forensic Accounting Certifications News Interpretation — How the main forensic accounting certifications compare.
- Dealing with Financial Statement Frauds with the J-Score Indiaforensic — A scoring approach for spotting manipulated financial statements.
- Forensic Accountant: Moving Towards a Successful Career Path Indiaforensic — What forensic accountants do and how the career develops.
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