Senior management are faced with making serious financial decisions on a daily basis. Getting one of these wrong can mean the company is the victim of a scam artist either externally through a customer or possibly by a new employee.
Every business owner whether they be a small or medium sized business should have an anti-fraud strategy in place across the organisation. This should cover best practices for employees to follow to prevent fraud from occurring externally and also have strict policies that employees should follow when carrying out their work. The latter will aid a business when they are dealing with an employee who attempts to deny that they were unaware what they were doing was wrong or that they were trying to rip off the company.
A point to be made there is that most employers will implement a fraud strategy to protect the business from outside the business but don’t consider unscrupulous behaviour of employees who can rob you blind. As cash flow is important for every business particularly in these difficult economic times businesses need to protect themselves from those who are willing to de-fraud their employers with their scams.
Implement an anti-fraud strategy as soon as possible. Here are some common fraud cases to look out for when running your business.
Beware of fake invoices. If you have an accounts department it can be easy for them to pay an invoice without checking. Companies involved in fraud will send out products there say they are selling or advertising of a product by will be in the form of an invoice to attempt to scam businesses into paying for something they never actually ordered or will receive.
Cash flow is king. You have to be very careful when giving credit to any business or customer with whom you know nothing about. It is rare for companies to give credit to unknown customers so why should you do the same? If you do want to conduct business this way, reduce the risk. Ask them for references and ask for a credit check to be carried out to determine how credible the applicant would be.
Hopefully this information will have helped you protect your business from fraud schemes and made you think about the vulnerabilities in your business. To get professional advice and speak with experienced business individuals I would suggest attending a fraud conference such as the
marcus evans scam conferences which are held in the major countries around the world.
