If men truly are from Mars and women from Venus, then figures from CIFAS - The UK's Fraud Prevention Service - confirm this by showing some remarkable differences between the sexes when it comes to fraud.

Most fraudsters, across the spectrum of cases filed by CIFAS Members, are men. In addition, some noticeable patterns emerge. Female fraudsters are most commonly seen in frauds involving mail order accounts, whereas the male fraudster is most prevalent in frauds involving asset finance or insurance.

Sandra Peaston, CIFAS Research Manager, comments: "This demonstrates some peculiar over-arching trends, with the proportion of female fraudsters being most often noted in mail order, communications and loan frauds. Similarly, the vast majority of male fraudsters in the areas of asset finance and insurance may go some way to demonstrate that it really is a case of 'boys and their toys'!"

An examination of the CIFAS Staff Fraud Database, however, shows a different balance, with over 40% of staff fraudsters being women. Furthermore, these figures reveal that male fraudsters are typically employed for a shorter period of time than their female equivalents.

CIFAS Staff Fraud Adviser, Arjun Medhi, notes that "the threat of staff fraud is much less gender specific than financial fraud. The longer period of employment for female fraudsters, interestingly, highlights an apparent different modus operandi between the sexes. Women seem either to wait longer before attempting to defraud their employers, or are able to disguise their activities better."

Richard Hurley, CIFAS Communications Manager, concludes: "These figures might go some way to show how the 'difference between the sexes' is manifested in unexpected ways. What should never be forgotten, however, is the damage that any of these actions will cause - irrespective of gender - in terms of financial loss and professional reputation."

Notes to Editors:

1 - CIFAS is the UK's Fraud Prevention Service with 260 Member organisations spread across banking, credit cards, asset finance, retail credit, mail order, insurance, investment management, telecommunications, factoring and share dealing.  Members share information on frauds in the fight to prevent further fraud.  CIFAS is unique and was the first data sharing scheme of its type in the world.

2 - The following tables show the male/female percentage splits for frauds filed to the CIFAS database figures for the following product types in 2008:

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