Cyber Fraud Prevention Resources

The most common example of fraud is an imposter scam. This involves someone posing as someone else to steal your information. The imposter can take the form of a romantic interest or emails, texts, and phone calls from a business. 

At some point you’ve probably received an email from a wealthy prince that needs a lump sum of money to access their wealth, and they can return your money tenfold. This is one of the most famous examples of an imposter scam.

Online fraud can take many forms, so while there isn’t a ‘one size fits all’ solution, there are a few easy ways to protect yourself from potential scams. These include:

• If it’s too good to be true, take caution.
• Double check the identity of the person or organisation that you’re dealing with.
• Don’t give out personal details – this can allow fraudsters to use your identity fraudulently or gain access to your accounts.
• Never trust unknown links and attachments.
• Use protected payment methods instead of direct money transfers.
• If you’ve spotted or think you’ve fallen for a scam, report it immediately – before the scammer takes action.

Fraud can cost organisations a lot more if ignored than if a company invests into their fraud prevention. Here are 9 fraud prevention methods that can protect your business:

• Multiple Reporting Avenues: Offering multiple avenues for reporting fraud allows contractors, vendors, and customers to report suspicious activity. Many companies only allow for employees to report suspected fraud, however it can often come from other sources.

• Use a Hotline: Tips are the most common fraud detection technique. Overall, 40% of all cases are detected by a whistleblower or tip, which is twice the rate of any other detection method.

• External Hotlines: Internal systems can often only be accessible from the office, and many employees would prefer to use it at home and ensure that it’s private. Using a third party company for your hotline can increase accessibility and safety for the individual making the tip.

• Employee Training: Employees are the first line of defence in your fraud prevention plan. Instructing them on how to recognise and report fraud is important to ensure they’re adequately prepared.

• Protect Your Assets:  SMEs often have cash assets within the office. Ensuring there are protocols for handling these such as requiring receipts can prevent easy theft and fraud. Similarly, ensuring receipts are provided for company credit card payments can remove the temptation of personal use.

• Understand Warning Signs: There are certain behaviours that are exhibited by occupational fraudsters and these are important to recognise. Things like having unusually close relationships with vendors or customers and living beyond their means can be a red flag.

• Reduce Opportunity: Sharing sensitive tasks between more than one employee can ensure that more than one set of eyes is watching over it. This will reduce the amount of opportunity a potential fraudster has when compared to working on these duties alone.

• Random Audits: Implementing a random spot audit can be an important step for your fraud prevention. These should cover any areas where a potential fraud could occur.

• Policies: Keeping your fraud prevention policies up to date will ensure that all employees manage their conduct and expected behaviour effectively, and know what actions to take if they notice suspicious actions.

If your fraud prevention methods have failed, the first step to handling fraud in the workplace is to stop the fraud immediately. This can be done by taking away the fraudsters’ access to company funds, devices, and isolating devices that the employee might have used.

It’s important to then conduct a thorough investigation to gather facts about the fraud. It’s important to have this before confronting the accused employee, as you need to ensure that they absolutely had involvement in the offence. 

Once all of this is confirmed and you have enough evidence to be confident that fraud has been committed, you should hold a closed-door meeting with the employee in question. This meeting should include a witness and be conducted professionally. Once completed the fraud will need to be reported to the police. Even if the employee offers to repay the lost assets, failing to report the fraud could leave other companies open to the employee’s theft in future.

Finally an internal investigation into what could have prevented the breach and how your fraud prevention policy could be improved is vital to ensure it doesn’t happen in future.