Business Fraud Prevention
Business Fraud Prevention
Business Fraud Prevention
Let a Contingency Plan Steer You Through a Fraud Disaster
The first thing every Boy Scout or Girl Scout learns is to “be prepared.” Business owners would do well to remember this motto when they’re developing fraud control procedures. Even if you don’t believe your employees are capable of defrauding the company, it could happen. And if you have a fraud contingency plan in place, […]
Business Fraud Prevention
How Crooks Use Bankruptcy to Cheat Creditors
When a company goes bankrupt, honest owners or directors do everything they can to hold creditors’ losses to a minimum. When it becomes clear the business can’t be saved, they halt trading (in the case of public companies), hire professional advisors to help guide them through bankruptcy proceedings and generally arrange for orderly liquidation. Less […]
Business Fraud Prevention
Avoid Unhappy Returns
Every day, retailers across the country issue refunds to customers. The reasons range from a bad fit to the wrong color to a changed mind. The transactions are generally simple — the customers get money or a credit card refund and the store gets merchandise that it needs to resell. How the Cons Work Refund […]
Business Fraud Prevention
The Importance of Segregating Duties
Small and medium-sized companies are particularly prone to employee theft because they typically don’t have the staff available to assign more than one employee to processes to help ensure that fraud doesn’t take place. Assigning more than one employee to certain tasks, also known as segregating duties, is one of the primary tactics that companies […]
Business Fraud Prevention
Two Common Types of Financial Fraud That Can Hurt Your Business
Many financial frauds and deceptions fall into two basic categories: “If employees perceive their company’s fraud controls to be weak or if they think management is only giving lip-service to ethical behavior, fraud is inevitable.” — Association of Certified Fraud Examiners 1. Misstatements on company financial reports (balance sheets, income statements, and so forth). 2. […]
Business Fraud Prevention
Ten Steps to Help Thwart Employee Theft
There are many types of fraud committed against businesses — from workers’ compensation scams to complex corporate swindles — but one of the most common types is simply employee theft. This can occur when employees take money from a cash register, forge names or change amounts on company checks, engage in creative bookkeeping a number […]
Business Fraud Prevention
Six Red Flags of Financial Statement Fraud
Many incidents of fraud are discovered inadvertently. For example, a staff member may notice something that doesn’t seem right and mentions it to a manager. Upon investigation, internal theft is found. But considering the potential damage that fraud can inflict on a company, it is obviously better to do more than depend on mere chance.
Business Fraud Prevention
Help Prevent Invoice Fraud at Your Business
When a supervisor with Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway stumbled upon a way to submit fraudulent invoices to his employer, he enlisted several others in the scheme. In the end, more than $2 million in bogus or inflated invoices (details of the case are in the right-hand box) were submitted. How the Fraud Worked […]
Business Fraud Prevention