In addition to the many things business owners must consider when starting and running a business—from structuring to incorporation to taxes and audits— guarding against fraud is one not as commonly discussed, but just as important. Clifford, Ross, Raudenbush, & Cooper offer fraud examination services to help your business prevent, find, and investigate possible fraud in your establishment and save you money.
According to the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE) revealed that the typical business loses an average of 5% of revenues each year due to fraud. These are sobering statistics for any organization. The ACFE also reported that the median loss caused by fraud was 145, 000 with 22% of those cases reporting losses of at least 1 million dollars. A lot of these fraud cases actually hit smaller businesses with less than 100 employees. This is because many small businesses do not have safeguards in place to protect against this kind of nefarious activity.
Common Types of Fraud and Steps to Prevent It
Cybercrime is certainly a big problem in today’s technology-driven work. After all, most—if not all— of our information is stored in digital databases, spreadsheets, and transferred through the wireless networks of the virtual landscape.
Credit Card Fraud: This seems to be one of the most common forms of fraud that happens to small businesses because of the high volume of payments processed through credit cards. Some preventative measures to take to avoid credit card fraud might include upgrading to chip readers, stay vigilant against odd customer behavior, secure your network by using an encryption, and always follow Payment Card Industry security standards.
Fraud from Within: Employees working in accounting, operations, sales, executive management, customer service, purchasing, or finance. Most of the frauds committed were by employees at the lower levels, about 36% were at the managerial level, and 19% were in the executive level. Establishing a strict code of conduct and instituting stringent management review procedures and fraud training for managers, executives, and employees are ways to help prevent some of this activity.
Other types of fraud can also include malware or ransomware which affect your computer and software systems. Also, watch out for scammers who pose as an authority looking for a money transfer or form of payment.
Get Professional Fraud Examination Services
If you suspect that there is odd activity happening inside your establishment or that you may not have the necessary safeguards in place, hire professional fraud examination services to protect your business.
We can help you search for fraud throughout your business in a professional, effective, and thorough manner. These kinds of investigations require deep knowledge of conducting investigations, research, and audits. If any fraud is detected, the next steps are just as crucial and demand the knowledge of evidence gathering and case building.