Fraud can impact your business and your bottom line. Let us help.

Considering how shockingly high the percentage of fraud in the American workplace has become. Fraud can cost a business up to 5% of its total revenue, according to one study from the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE).  A similar study from the U.S. Department of Commerce further asserts that American businesses lose $20 to $40 billion per year to employee fraud schemes. And this is common fraud we’re talking about; common schemes like employee theft. What’s worse, the majority of fraud in business goes undetected. Of those caught, most are after significant losses have been sustained to the business. ACFE here says that reported cases of fraud show that the offender presented underlying behaviors up to 18 months prior to detection, showing that fraud is an ongoing problem that won’t resolve itself. 

Every year, reports of business internal theft continue to be the most common form of financial loss to small and mid sized companies. There are many forms of employee theft, all of which stem from an employee who has fallen to a temptation resulting from the power of their position. Employee theft includes both stealing and any misuse of employer assets without permission from the employer. While employee embezzlement, skimming, and other forms of monetary theft are the main fraud losses suffered by businesses, they aren’t the only ones. Other, often more detrimental and difficult to catch, employee scams include the misuse of company assets, which includes the frequently cited time theft. Faking additional hours or using company time for personal or leisure activities are both forms of time theft. 

Acknowledging the threat of fraud risk in your business is the first step towards seeking fraud recovery and fraud risk management. Whether you’ve been burned in the past or you simply want to start off on the right foot when it comes to preventing workplace fraud, start with a simple risk assessment from a fraud management consultant like Guard Point Management. Having experiences in SWAT, investigations, and other law enforcement sectors, and as a loss retention expert in the casino and gaming industry, founder Chris Parman is a cut above other fraud management solutions. Enterprise fraud prevention doesn’t need to be a complex and enormously expensive burden to a business. Start with a free fraud risk consultation to find your individual business risks. 

Difficult Decisions

It’s hard to think that your employees may not have the best interests of your business at heart. After all, these are people that you’ve hand picked and trusted to help run your business on a day to day basis and aid in long term growth. Businesses need long standing, trustworthy employees working in key positions in order to flourish. Unfortunately, employee theft doesn’t always come from lower level employees. More than half of all fraud is committed by employees on a managerial level. Such employees have additional duties and responsibilities that come with additional security clearances, and they are trusted to work alone without oversight. Types of management fraud more often include transfers of large sums of money through schemes like sending false invoices, forging checks or making false checks, and asset misappropriation fraud. In addition to financial business fraud risk, manager fraud will more often result in a loss of future business revenue in the form of breached contracts or poached clients. 

It can be challenging knowing what to do if you suspect embezzlement or other forms of fraud as either an employee or an employer; and statistically, it is likely that you will find yourself in this position at some point, as an estimated 75% of employees will steal from an employer at least once, with half going on to continue acts of workplace fraud. This high estimate is the same for the suspected number of unreported fraud cases each year. Whatsmore, it isn’t just the employee committing the fraud that you have to look out for. A US Chamber of Commerce study found that 20% of employees are aware of instances of fraud happening within their place of employment, but do not report it. Having a simple fraud response plan for your employees and available training on company ethics and policies, including how to report suspected fraud, are surprisingly helpful when it comes to lowering fraud rates within a company. 

The Problem

The problem isn’t that a small percentage of companies experience fraud; in fact a great number of small and medium sized businesses lose up to 20% of every dollar to fraud; the problem is that most companies don’t want to believe that these things would happen to them. Prevention and detection of fraud starts with a business risk assessment to determine, based on your industry and scale, what particular fraud risks you may be more likely to face. Understanding fraud risks a business may be exposed to can help to craft a fraud response plan before you need one. Based on the ACFE fraud risk management guidelines, Guard Point Management works with California businesses to highlight where their weak spots are for internal business fraud and what measures could catch existing instances and prevent future instances of fraud. Our free consultations allow you to get a tailored solution to your risk management needs, no matter where your business is in the country.