Fraud in the workplace

No matter how much you trust your employees some can slip up and quite innocently cause massive headaches from time to time. Last year, according to CIFAS, the UK's Fraud Prevention Service, 236,500 members were victims of fraud - that figure is only their members, there are many more. So how do we avoid rip-offs? The most common fraud is still identity theft and last year alone cases escalated by 10%. In this case fraudsters use your ID for financial gain by obtaining credit, making purchases or using services which you will have to pay for. Once they have got hold of your details they go on to take out mortgages, have holidays and spend, spend, spend and the cost to you could be crippling to say the least. It gives them complete control of your finances and your business and there are ways to protect yourself. Make sure that you have a shredder in the office, bin nothing with your details on it. and make sure that your staff know that they should never, ever give your bank or personal details over the phone no matter how charming the caller may be. Some frauders call claiming to be from the bank or they send emails asking for information so make sure that they know that banks don't operate this way. If you move business premises make sure that your mail is redirected and be careful if the post is left in a communal area where anyone can pick it up. The fraudsters goals are always the same - impersonating someone, hijacking accounts and using others as a front for money laundering (they claim that you are owed a lot of money to get your bank details). It is a good idea to make your staff aware of this because they could become victims too.