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The answer is debt. Employees can often be honest hard working for years before they turn to running scams because of debt they have accumulated. Employees can be team players for years, career focused and then personal problems take over and they look for a solution. They get dragged into corporate fraud for various financial reasons such as private school fees for children, wife with expensive tastes or more common problems like excessive spending and mortgage repayments.
People get away with running scams for several months and often years because they know the systems inside out. Their scam can go unnoticed and often they get caught because although they have cleared their debts they have gotten used to their extra income'.
Those committing these frauds are often quoted as saying debt was the major reason for formulating a scam however the companies were so badly run that they believed they could get rip off the business and not get caught. Once they realised that they were getting away with it and enjoying their new lifestyle it became more and more difficult to put an end to their fraud schemes. When you know exactly the processes of a business, the people involved and how work is carried out, you can exploit weaknesses in the system to your advantage.
If you are a business owner reading this article I'm sure it's made you think about your business. You will be assessing it in your head now thinking if you have left the business open to fraud. You need to take a strong stance and demonstrate that you are taking steps to control the problem. By taking the problem seriously you take away the temptation away from employees who are convinced that they would get away with fraud schemes.
There are estimates of fraud costing UK businesses 2bn each year however the real cost would be hard to quantify since so much goes unreported each year as businesses want to avoid negative publicity or gain a bad reputation.
You should report any fraud that has happened within your organisation while it will have been a cost to your business, it will act as a deterrent and reduce the chance of fraud in your organisation.
To keep up to date with the latest scams and hear personal business cases of fraud attend the next marcus evans scam conference.
Disclaimer: All information on this site is provided for informational purposes only! By no means is any
information presented herein intended to substitute for the advice provided to you by any health care or other professional
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