Common Business Insurance Coverage Oversight

You may think your business has enough insurance already. What's a common business insurance coverage oversight? If you business is vulnerable to employee theft and fraud — and most businesses are — you may want to consider adding more coverage. Some insurance companies offer policies to protect against loss of money and property due to criminal acts by employees. Here’s how to decide whether your business needs one. Specialty coverage Employee dishonesty insurance can cover not only theft of money, property and securities, but also willful damage to property. If, for example, an employee smashes a computer or kicks a hole in a wall, it’s likely covered. And this type of policy covers losses from all employees. However, coverage generally is based on occurrences. So if more...

Be Careful When Applying for an SBA Loan

A Small Business Administration (SBA) loan can make big things happen for your small company. But the agency’s loan program is sometimes abused by con artists who know that many small business owners have little experience applying for financing and are, therefore, vulnerable to scams. Here’s what you should know when applying for an SBA Loan. Applying for an SBA loan: Background on SBA products The SBA provides various financing options with favorable terms and greater flexibility to small businesses and start-ups. It doesn’t disburse loans directly but gives lenders federal guarantees and backing to reduce lending risk. Individual businesses must themselves make arrangements with financial institutions that make loans. Three key SBA programs are: 1. SBA 7(a) loans. This is the flagship product. It typically frees up working...

Dont Contemplate Fraud Litigation without a CPA

You may already know how CPAs can help businesses uncover and prevent fraud. But what about when a fraud incident leads to civil litigation? Don't contemplate fraud litigation without an experienced CPA that can help your legal team collect and summarize complex financial documents and reconstruct lost or stolen records. CPAs can also serve as expert witnesses in court. From investigator to expert witness As a fraud investigation becomes a fraud case, CPAs can help identify critical evidence. They may also be enlisted to analyze and translate financial data for attorneys, insurers and other parties. These financial experts can be equally valuable with depositions by helping to frame questions that attorneys ask witnesses. They also are skilled at spotting inconsistencies and flaws in witness testimony. Once a case...

Has Fraud Corrupted Your Supply Contracts?

Has fraud corrupted your supply contracts? If your business solicits bids for goods or service contracts, there’s a risk that employees will solicit or accept kickbacks to favor certain vendors. Or, they might steer a bid to a vendor based on their personal ties to the company’s owner or employees. Here’s how to prevent this unethical — if not illegal — behavior from corrupting your business’s purchasing process. Kickbacks leave traces Kickback recipients accept bribes to steer business to certain vendors. Although kickbacks are common in some industries, they’re unethical and can severely damage a business’s reputation, cost you more than buying the same goods or services from other vendors and lead to legal entanglements. Fortunately, you can spot kickback activity if you know what to look for....

Jury Duty Fraud Schemes

Some fraud schemes refuse to die. Jury duty fraud schemes existed long before phishing, malware and other cybercrime methods became synonymous with identity theft. Yet just this month, the U.S. Marshals Service issued a fraud advisory about this old-school con that’s enjoying a resurgence. Common methods Here’s how jury duty scams work: Perpetrators posing as court officers, U.S. Marshals and other members of law enforcement call unsuspecting victims, warning them that they’re about to be arrested because they haven’t reported for jury duty. When the targets assert they haven’t been notified that they’ve been selected, the scammers ask for information to “verify their records.” The information the scammers want, of course, is a victim’s Social Security number and date of birth. Some go a step further and...

Healthcare Data Breaches Can Threaten Your Financial Well-Being

Like many sectors of the economy, the healthcare industry regularly suffers data breaches. Healthcare  data breaches can threaten your financial well-being.  Healthcare analytics company Protenus has found that nearly 32 million patient records were breached between January and June 2019 alone. Alarmed? You should be. However, there are steps you can take to reduce the risk that thieves will get a hold of your medical records and use them for nefarious purposes. Why they’re valuable Unlike other types of personal data, healthcare records command a hefty premium on the black market. That’s at least partly because criminals can potentially use information about an individual’s health to blackmail him or her. Also, stolen medical records include valuable details about people’s identities. In fact, there’s usually enough information in medical files...

Defrauded? Prioritize Evidence Preservation

You may suspect that an employee has stolen from your company. But without evidence of a crime, you’ll have a hard time pursuing prosecution. So if you discover a fraud, first call your attorney. Then take immediate steps to preserve the evidence. Safeguard paper documents Place any hard documents related to the possible fraud in a safe location that’s accessible only to key people. The fewer who handle it, the better. Don’t make notes on any paper documents and, unless necessary, don’t let them be handled. Instead, make separate notations about when and where they were found and how you preserved them. A court case can be derailed if you don’t preserve the chain of evidence and can’t prove to a judge’s satisfaction that the documents haven’t...

5 Business Service Scams to Watch Out For

Preventing fraud from costing your company can sometimes seem like a game of whack-a-mole: Squash one scheme and another one pops up. Business service scams are particularly abundant. Fraud perpetrators know that business owners don’t always have time to verify the identities of salespeople or service reps and the legitimacy of their claims.  Your best defense is to refuse to pay anyone anything until you’ve ascertained the facts. It also helps to know what schemes are popular with criminals. Here are 5 business service scams to watch out for. (1) Utility Bill Fraudsters Someone claiming to be from your gas, electric or water company may call and say services are about to be cut off for non-payment. However, you can stop the discontinuation if you immediately pay the...

When Limited Partners Suspect General Partners of Fraud

Fraud suspicions are hard enough to investigate if you’re a business owner and call the shots. But what if you’re a limited partner (LP) in a business where a general partner (GP) is possibly engaged in mismanagement, self-dealing or fraud? With little control over the company, limited partners that suspect general partners of fraud face several challenges. The problem In a limited partnership, one or more general partners (GPs) manage the business while limited partners (LPs) contribute capital and share in the profits. LPs don’t run or manage the business. In fact, in most states, if they become involved in management decisions they can lose their LP status. Other states allow minor exceptions to this rule by, for example, allowing an LP to vote on issues that...

Your Online Match May be a Fraudster

According to various estimates, approximately 25% to 30% of online dating accounts involve scammers. Therefore, if you maintain a dating platform account, you need to know that a significant portion of accounts — including possible “matches” that contact you — belong to fraud perpetrators.  Yes, your online match may be a fraudster.  Here’s something else you should know: The dating app provider may be using these bad actors to pad its own bottom line. Love connection? The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) says that Match Group, Inc., the owner of Match.com and other dating sites, did just that. In a lawsuit filed by the FTC, the company is accused of allowing millions of its members to receive “You caught his eye” notices from accounts it knew were likely...