ACFE Calgary - Fraud Trends 2026: Emerging Risks, Schemes, and Red Flags You Can’t Afford to Miss

Fraud Trends 2026: Emerging Risks, Schemes, and Red Flags You Can’t Afford to Miss

No Brakes, No Limits. Fraud risk is evolving at unprecedented speed, driven by economic pressures, technological advancements, and increasingly sophisticated threat actors. This is the year fraud went “invisible”—we knew artificial intelligence (AI) would change everything. We didn’t expect it to erase the line between real and fake so thoroughly and with such force. The rise of AI in business operations introduces complex legal and ethical challenges – particularly when AI systems act in ways that could result in fraud, including AI‑enabled impersonation, manipulation of financial data, or insider threats such as misrepresenting information which could help secure contracts. This session provides an in‑depth overview of the latest AI‑enabled fraud schemes, showing that AI is both a risk driver and a critical part of the solution. Participants will gain insights into how AI changes fraud and investigations, practical red flags, AI-enabled scenarios, detection strategies, governance, and the controls organizations are deploying to stay ahead of modern fraudsters.

Liezel Pistorius

Liezel is a seasoned professional with 16+ years of experience uncovering evidence relevant to reported allegations or crimes. Liezel's career started with KPMG in South Africa, and she works with clients across the world, with operations in North America (Canada and US), Africa, Australia, Mexico, Chile, Germany, Argentina, and the Caribbean Islands. Some of Liezel's most recent experience include white-collar crime investigations into employee misconduct, conflicts of interest allegations, contractual irregularities, procurement wrongdoings, billing schemes, allegations of theft, abuse or wrongdoing, theft of intellectual property, cyber-related incidents, cryptocurrency asset tracing, Mareva injunction preparation and execution, Anton Pillar Order (APO) execution, digital or computer forensics, electronic discovery (eDiscovery), and other proactive or reactive risk advisory services.

Invited as a speaker at several events across Canada, Liezel delivered presentations about fraud and misconduct including most recently – Risk Trends 2025 and Beyond; Trends to Watch for in White-Collar Crime; Corruption, Integrity and Ethics; Fraud Risks and Awareness Considerations; Uncovering Truths: Forensic Accounting Strategies and Best Practices; Fraud Awareness in Not-for-Profits; Cryptocurrency and Litigation; Professional Ethics & Fraud; How to Spot Unusual Patterns & Prevent Recurring Digital Fraud Trends; The Digital Fraud Journey; Ongoing Challenges and the Link between Cyber and Forensic, among others.