4 Fraudulent Activities to Prevent in Your Organization

4 Fraudulent Activities to Prevent in Your Organization

Image by Sang Hyun Cho from Pixabay

With fraud operating at so many different levels, prevention is better than a cure. Stopping the problem by detecting and denying fraudulent activity before it can integrate with your company is the best way forward, and with the help of modern technology and research, businesses have multiple ways to address multiple types of fraud before they even begin.

1 – Employee Information Theft

In the age of hybrid work, most workers have access to personal computers in their own home that are connected to the work network, meaning any leaks in cybersecurity can lead to not only company information being found, but personal employee information too. The rate at which personal computers were targeted increased 768% leading into COVID as companies rushed to set up a huge IT network to facilitate working from home.

What can you do?

One way to limit the effect on employees is to supply work laptops or computer systems that don’t contain personal information.

2 – Payment Fraud

Once your employee information is safe, there’s still the threat of identity theft from outside the company – from customers. If someone interacts with your goods and services while using a stolen card or other payment method the cost could be severe. Not only that, but fast payment methods built into accounts like Google Pay or contactless have increased Payment Fraud rates by 64% over two years.

What can you do?

Bolstering a company with payments fraud prevention techniques is the safest way to protect your assets from this avenue of fraud. Having active systems to predict, identify, and shut-down fraudulent transactions before they happen is the only way to be certain that fraud isn’t active at the company.

3 – Asset Misappropriation

Assets in your company are integral to your success, be it the sum of money supporting your efforts or the outcome of previous investments. All of these varying assets need to be protected and maintained to ensure no employee is deliberately or mistakenly moving or removing assets. Things like company cards or accounts can be easy to access and manipulate, and it’s unfortunate that trust alone doesn’t always stop these cases.

What can you do?

Similarly to employee information theft, assets benefit from a dedicated IT team that enforces and regulates good cybersecurity. However, unlike employee information, asset theft can be physical too. This means careful inventory checks at relevant companies and a thorough timetable of who has access to assets and when. Rotating this timetable through employees and allowing them to peer-assess each other’s work in these areas will ensure accounts are safe from any tampering.

4 – Invoice Fraud

For companies that have multiple business partners and freelance workers, invoice fraud is deadly. By intercepting legitimate invoices, hackers can redirect and recreate them to be paid instead.

What can you do?

Barclays discovered only 14% of companies actually call the phone line attached to invoices to confirm the identity of the sender. By taking the time to call the number or verify the identity in another way, you save money later on cleaning up the effects of the fraud.

Prevention is better than cure

By using the information available on these fraudulent activities you can start preparing your business to defend itself. Both internal and external threats – all fraud can be prevented to some degree and the investment in the solutions here like an IT help desk or payment fraud prevention will pay for itself by stopping fraud claiming your assets.

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