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Today's businesses are in greater jeopardy of sustaining catastrophic losses from fraud than ever before.
These modern day criminals are smarter, better educated, and give off the persona of "Employee of the Year". Each type of business, from small businesses to
large corporations, all face different threats from today's blue and white collar thieves. So how can you detect and prevent fraud in your company?
As Fraud Examiners, we are trained to encourage businesses to deploy the #1 tool for preventing fraud, a clear and present Fraud Prevention Policy. First, we visit your company and perform an Anti Fraud Checkup. This begins with an evaluation of the way your company conducts business and is followed by a process of reviews & recommendations.
Based on your company's score further consultation may or may not be required. If your company has no Fraud Policy in force we strongly encourage you to take steps to develop one. Our examiners can develop policies that are custom designed to protect your company against industry related threats and We can even train someone in your organization to administer the program.
If you have identified theft within your company and need assistance with uncovering those responsible we can help. Remember, there is more to the process than just catching and firing a thief. With proper handling, the thief can be interviewed in a manner that may provide invaluable information about other forms of theft that you have not yet discovered! These matters are best assigned to investigators with keen interviewing skills.
The first type of theft we call robbery, with its many varieties, and the second we call fraud. While robbery is certainly more violent than fraud, and attracts much more media attention losses from fraud far exceed losses from robbery.
In the corporate context, fraud can be categorised as being internal (committed by insiders, i.e. officers, directors, employees and agents) and external (committed by outsiders i.e. vendors, contractors, and suppliers). Corporate fraud can also be classified as to those committed by insiders for the company (violation of government regulations, i.e. tax, securities, safety and environmental laws).
Corporate frauds are often detected by accounting discrepancies noted by internal auditors and by allegations of theft, corruption, or auditors and by allegations of theft, corruption or embezzlement received by security investigators. Frauds perpetrated by senior management involve the misrepresentation of facts in financial statements. In such cases there may be overstatements of assets, sales and profit, or understatements of liabilities, expenses and losses. Senior managers might perpetrate financial statements frauds to deceive investors and lenders or to inflate profits and thereby gain higher salaries and bonuses.
Frauds committed by low-level employees include such techniques as falsifying expense reports and benefit claims, embezzling funds, using corporate property for personal purposes, stealing corporate property, and accepting gratuities from vendors, contractors, and suppliers. Low-level frauds are often called transaction frauds, as distinguished from fraud in financial statements mentioned previously.
Integrity Security & Investigation Services, Inc. (ISIS) is in a position to help deter and detect fraud that might be present in your organization. No two companies are the same, and we never institute the same procedures or techniques. The first step is to 'scan' the structure of your organization and detect any possible flaws in the system that would allow any possible fraudsters room to rob your assets. We can provide a range of services for this specific area of fraud, and our consultants are all well experienced in preventing and detecting fraud in all environments.
In a perfect world no one would steal. But given the opportunity and knowing that there is no one to find out, people are tempted to have 'sticky fingers'. Please do bear in mind; fraud is committed by anyone! Not just low level employees, or casual workers. In most cases based on our experience, people that you trust, and you would never suspect commit it. People that may already be entrusted in your organization and have worked for you for many years. Our job function is to help you identify, and eventually seal any loopholes in your organization's operating system thus preventing or detecting any fraudsters from looting your organizations assets.
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