Managing Third-Party Contractor Risk

Companies of all sizes routinely outsource work to third-party contractors. Yet, each third-party hire comes with risk. Whether deliberate or unintentional, a third party’s actions can cost you money and harm your company’s reputation — particularly if they violate laws and regulations. Here’s how to contain possible threats. Potential problems Suppose your company employs an overseas trucking company to transport goods from a port to a customer’s warehouse. The driver could pay a kickback to customs personnel to release shipments quickly — potentially subjecting your business to bribery and corruption charges locally and in the United States. In another scenario, a third party might expose your company to excessive risk because it lacks a robust cybersecurity program and is easily hacked. This is what happened when Target Corporation...

Protecting Goods from Theft at Every Stage of Their Supply Chain Journey

The U.S. supply chain is overwhelmed and it’s expected to remain so for some time. With so many shipments tied up in ports and too few workers to watch them, cargo theft has become a significant problem. Yet theft from ports of entry isn’t the only way goods disappear. Criminals routinely target truck shipments as well. Cargo theft costs companies somewhere between $15 billion and $35 billion annually, according to the National Insurance Crime Bureau. To help prevent theft from hurting your company’s bottom line, protect your goods at every stage of their journey to customers.  Contain cargo crime The fight against cargo theft starts when loading container ships. Make sure employees who handle your goods have passed criminal background checks. In addition to using secure locks, consider...

KYC Rules Help Prevent Fraud and Offer Other Advantages

For years, banks, financial service and investment companies, and exporters have been required to follow know-your-customer (KYC) processes to thwart criminal activity. Developed to help certain businesses comply with anti-money laundering and anti-terrorism regulations, these programs aren’t mandated for most nonfinancial businesses. But you might want to consider adopting some KYC principles anyway. They can help you prevent fraud — including occupational fraud and identity theft — and even boost your marketing and sales efforts. Enhanced due diligence As part of their KYC processes, financial institutions generally verify customers’ names, addresses, and dates of birth and check them against lists of known criminals. In addition, they monitor transaction trends and high-risk accounts to determine their risk and whether they merit filing suspicious activity reports with the government....

Check Kiting is No Game

Despite the business community’s rapid adoption of digital payment methods, some companies continue to rely on paper checks. But there’s a long-standing problem with checks: They make businesses vulnerable to several damaging types of fraud, including check kiting. Here’s how the scheme works. Riding the float In a check kiting scheme, the perpetrator takes advantage of the “float,” or the time between when a check is deposited and when the bank collects funds on the check. In essence, a bank that accepts check deposits and releases funds immediately provides account holders with interest-free loans. Some unethical businesses take advantage of this process. Although the total number of days it takes banks to process checks and collect funds has declined in recent years, there’s still opportunity to capitalize on...

Typosquatters are Leading Innocent Victims Astray

Typosquatting takes advantage of an inclination among internet users known as “fat fingers” — a tendency to hit the wrong keys and enter misspelled trademarks or brands. Like phishing, typosquatting is a type of social engineering that tricks people into visiting websites they didn’t intend to visit. These schemes can harm both consumers and the businesses whose names are abused. Connection to cybersquatting Typosquatting is connected to cybersquatting, where someone registers a site’s domain name that includes a trademark and then tries to profit by selling that name to the trademark owner. With typosquatting, fraudsters register URLs that are common misspellings of company and brand names. For example, a bad actor might register landswnd.com and lnadsend.com. Then, when users try to visit the site of retailer Lands’...

Is Someone Stealing Your Companys Secrets?

Corporate espionage has long been a threat for U.S. companies. Recently, intellectual property theft by foreign governments and organized crime gangs has grabbed headlines — for good reason. According to the U.S. Justice Department, 80% of its economic espionage prosecutions target schemes that would benefit China. Yet for most businesses, the threat comes from employees and former employees who take advantage of lax environments with few internal controls. The problem . . . and a solution Employees with access to trade secrets may take that information with them when they leave your company for another job — or pad their paychecks by selling it to your competitors while still employed. As with all types of fraud, workers are more likely to participate in corporate espionage if they’re...

How Business Owners Can Comply With New Financial Crime Regulation

Earlier this year, the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA) became the latest law intended to foil financial crime. This law is part of the National Defense Authorization Act and requires certain entities to disclose the identities of those who own or control it. Anonymous no longer Perpetrators of criminal acts such as fraud, drug and human trafficking, and terrorism often use anonymous or shell companies to launder ill-gotten funds and avoid prosecution. By removing anonymity from business ownership, the CTA makes it harder for criminals to engage in criminal activity. Forcing disclosure of an entity’s beneficial owners enables law enforcement to penetrate corporate walls. In fact, New York Federal Reserve research suggests that the CTA will reduce criminal transactions by approximately 70%. Covered entities  Unlike other laws designed to combat financial...

When For-Profit Colleges Deceive Students

For-profit colleges and vocational schools — especially online programs — provide degree-earning opportunities to many Americans who might not otherwise be able to pursue higher education due to financial pressures and work or family obligations. But as countless complaints and lawsuits suggest, some for-profit institutions engage in deceptive, and even illegal, recruiting and retention practices. In early October, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) put 70 for-profit schools on notice that they could incur costly sanctions for certain activities. Specifically, the schools were warned about misrepresenting the “career outcomes” of their graduates. Learn more so you and your family members can avoid paying for a degree that’s not worth the paper it’s printed on.  Clear warning The FTC’s Notice of Penalty Offenses covers practices such as exaggerating the percentage...

Actively Look for for Fraud and Reduce Financial Losses

The Association of Certified Fraud Examiners’ (ACFE’s) Report to the Nations: 2020 Global Study on Occupational Fraud and Abuse provides ample evidence that some fraud detection methods are better than others. In general, passive methods, such as accidental discovery or notification by police, coincide with longer-running schemes and higher financial costs. To nab dishonest employees quickly and limit losses, your company needs to be proactive. Shorten time, minimize costs Active methods include IT controls, data monitoring and analysis, account reconciliation, management review, surprise audits and internal audit. These methods can significantly lower fraud durations and losses. For example, frauds detected by IT controls had a median duration of six months and a median loss of $80,000. Those found through account reconciliation ran for a median of seven months...

What Goes into a Fraud Damages Calculation?

At first glance, calculating restitution for fraud damages may seem relatively simple. If someone steals $10,000 from a company, that person should repay that amount, perhaps with interest, right? Not quite. Financial experts also consider the profits the business lost because of the fraud — and weigh different methods of computing damages. The appropriate approach Experts typically use either the benefit-of-the-bargain or out-of-pocket approach to calculate damages. The appropriate method depends to some degree on the location and nature of the fraud. But in most cases, the benefit-of-the-bargain method results in greater restitution for victims. Take, for example, a property developer who buys a parcel of land that the seller says is worth $1 million but is offering at $900,000. In truth, the seller is lying about the...