What is control fraud? Hall (2013) defines it generally as “a misrepresentation of material fact made by one party with the intent to deceive and cause the other party to place justifiable reliance on the fact to his or her detriment” (p.97). ISA (NZ) 240 11(a) also defines it as “an intentional act by one or more individuals in the organization or a third party who uses deception to obtain an unfair or unlawful advantage”. Van Peursem, Pratt, and Cordery (2011) list the misrepresentation or intentionally deceptive act of corporate fraud as involving “misappropriation of corporate assets or manipulation of accounting information” (p. 56). Additionally, Hall (2013) discussed three factors that can help explain why fraud is committed: opportunity, pressure, and ethics. He discussed that fraud is usually a result of the existing pressure and opportunities for the organizational member who has low professional and personal ethics and has the predisposition to commit fraud. Since the deceptive acts and the usual suspects or perpetrators are the same in any company or industry, the difference between private and public sector fraud concerns the victims of the fraud, how much they suffer from it and possibly the different levels of pressure and opportunities , collectively known as fraud risk factors, to engage in fraudulent activities. Private sector companies acquire their financial capital from investor shareholders and base their operations solely on maximizing the returns on those investments. Shareholders therefore find themselves at the receiving end of fraud committed in their companies and end up absorbing the resulting losses. The extent of fraud and losses is usually directly related to the complexity and size of the c...... middle of paper ...... gap can be addressed by first ensuring that auditors meet the existing requirements of the profession and standards for identifying and reporting material misstatements due to fraud, having the required skills and knowledge and making all the necessary efforts. Porter (1990) suggests that this can be achieved by continuing professional development and training and by enforcing rigorous adherence to standards. Zikmund (2008) also suggests that auditors could perhaps (further) develop their skills in fraud detection and forensic skills by improving knowledge of various fraud schemes and scenarios, as well as applicable laws and regulations. Once professional-level performance is improved and maintained, the profession could perhaps review and modify current standards and guidelines that could improve fraud detection and meet society's expectations halfway..