Inveterate scammers. Seven ways of fraud by counterparties. What are the raster signs of the danger of fraud?

Most owners of small companies mistakenly believe that everything in the company depends on them, and do not spend their time and money protecting their business from various types of scammers. This kind of irresponsibility can have negative consequences. Recently, criminals have been using a completely new method of stealing money from small business. At the moment, the fraud scheme has not yet become widespread, but more than 100 company owners have already suffered. In this article we will talk about how attackers can quite easily deprive you of money.

How do businessmen make money?

This happens as follows: a certain company, let’s call it Horns and Hooves LLC, applies to the Arbitration Court with a statement of claim, to which it attaches a fake promissory note or a fake certificate of work performed, with the help of which you can easily sue about 300,000 rubles. In the best case, you will learn about the debt when you receive a writ of execution, and in the worst case, after funds are written off from your account. How does this happen?

The fact is that the court's decision in this case will be absolutely legal. The Arbitration Procedural Code (Arbitration Procedure Code of the Russian Federation) provides for the possibility of collecting a debt from a legal entity in the amount of up to 300,000 rubles without calling the parties to court. While you are at a loss as to where this creditor came from, the bank will legally (according to a writ of execution) write off the money from your current account. As practice shows, it is almost impossible to return this money in the future, and the return process itself is very long and expensive.

However, there were cases when imaginary creditors received more than 300,000 rubles from businessmen, but for them a simplified judicial procedure is not provided. How is this possible? When sending you a notice of a court hearing, the address (street name, house number, etc.) may be accidentally “mixed up.” Accordingly, the letter did not reach the addressee, and the case has to be considered without the defendant, which undoubtedly plays into the hands of the scammers.

Mostly small businesses suffer from such attackers, but there are also quite large companies that were unable to properly protect their activities and prevent illegal actions against them.

How to avoid becoming a victim of scammers?

Of course, small companies are ideal targets for such schemes. Often such firms do not have lawyers or special services on staff to monitor cases in Arbitration Courts. In addition, managers are more concerned about financial issues and ways to promote the business, rather than the legal intricacies of running entrepreneurial activity and other possible dangers.

Of course, it is easier to prevent the occurrence of fraud than to deal with its consequences. Most importantly, remember to check your email regularly, especially if your mailing address and physical address are different.

It is also a good habit to visit the Arbitration Court website monthly. It contains all the information about pending court cases. Check the website for information about claims against your company. If such information appears, immediately contact the court for clarification of the issue.

If you are afraid to forget that you need to check information about court proceedings, then you can set up monitoring for the name of your company in state information registers, for example, in the Unified Federal Register of Bankruptcy Information bankrot.fedresurs.ru. If any information appears about the company, a message about this will be sent to your email address. In addition, you will be able to immediately see who filed a claim against you in court and what their requirements are. In this case, there is no need to hire additional employees to protect your business, since everything can be done yourself.

If you have been scammed by scammers

If the fraudsters managed to file a claim with the Arbitration Court, and you received a writ of execution to collect a false debt, immediately contact the bank where the company’s current account is opened. The faster the better. The bank studies the requirements for the writ of execution within 7 days before debiting the amount specified in the document from your account.

In addition, you must contact law enforcement authorities with a statement about fraudulent actions committed against you. Next, go to court with a counterclaim to cancel the decision to collect the debt. While the proceedings are ongoing, the execution of the first judgment will be suspended. The court will order examinations and other investigative actions. This process is very long, but it is possible to prove that the documents presented to the court are false and get your money back. However, it is unlikely that it will be possible to find the attackers, since for such actions they usually use fly-by-night companies and their real owners always remain in the shadows.

If the worst happened and you received the writ of execution later than the bank, or the document did not arrive at all and you were unable to warn in time credit institution, then get ready for a long and exhausting fight for your money through the courts and law enforcement agencies. The sooner you act, the greater the likelihood that the seized amount will not have time to disappear from the account of the imaginary creditor to the account of another shell company.

To summarize the article, let us once again remind you that you should not forget about protecting your business, especially since some methods are quite simple and do not require financial costs. Check your email regularly and monitor events on the Arbitration Court website. As they say: forewarned is forearmed.

Non-standard business methods can be carried out within the framework of current legislation, but often go beyond it. In this case, they are considered as economic fraud.

The very nature of fraud is inherent in duality. Sometimes we simply cannot determine what is in front of us: a new form of business, a scam, or an unintentional mistake.

In a well-known parable, a rich man gave three friends an envelope with one hundred thousand dollars, which he asked to put in his coffin after his death. It is important to note that one of the friends was a priest, the second was a lawyer, and the third was a financier. When the rich man died, everyone in ϲᴏᴏᴛʙᴇᴛϲᴛʙi with this promise put an envelope in the coffin and the deceased was buried. But very soon the priest called his friends and with a repentant look said that his conscience had tormented him, since he had only put $50,000 in the coffin and distributed the rest to the poor. After this, the lawyer admitted to saving money. The financier was terribly outraged by the ignoble behavior of their friends. “Unlike you,” he said, “I honestly put an envelope with a check for $100,000 in the coffin!”

Fraud has many faces. But at the heart of any of its varieties is the malicious taking of someone else’s property, regardless of what form it is in.

appears: money, inventory items, intellectual developments or in some other form. Many crimes are based on theft - the malicious taking of someone else's personal property with the intention of turning it into their property without the owner's consent. The owner does not have to be known at the time of the theft. Moreover, the person from whom property is stolen may not be its legal owner.

For example, property may be stolen from a freight forwarder transporting cargo; bailiff, who keeps him as arrested until the debt is paid; from the collateral company, which holds it as collateral.

But if the fraudster received someone else's property legally and used it for personal needs, then there will no longer be theft. According to international practice, such an event would be more correctly considered as embezzlement. Embezzlement is the taking of property by a person who uses and disposes of it legally before its true owner takes possession of it. Embezzlement almost always conceals a breach of trust, since the person who committed it occupied a special position related to the trust placed in him by the owner of the property.

The notary was entrusted with a certain amount of money for storage or for using it as a guarantee for a transaction, and he spent this amount on his own needs. It must be remembered that such actions of his are interpreted precisely as waste.

Accused, what can you say in your defense?

Only one thing: they entrusted me with millions, and I only squandered five hundred thousand dollars. *

Quite often, in international practice, they prefer to talk not about theft, not about embezzlement, but about waste - the improper expenditure of the property of an enterprise by an official. This is an extremely rational approach, since the managers of enterprises that are victims of fraud on the part of their employees often do not want to wash dirty linen in public, accusing the guilty employees not of theft or embezzlement, but simply of waste.

Another term widely used to define fraud is the concept of "intentional abuse", which is used in relation to any unjustified expenditure of someone else's property. In this case, there must be criminal intent and a plan to deceive.

A person who abuses the property entrusted to him may use various fraud schemes. An example would be a case where a bank executive used bank funds to purchase shares in such a way that any profits from these securities would go to him, and any losses would fall on the bank.

Forgery usually occurs in the form of fraud committed against a business or individual by third parties. Forgery is a fraudulent entry or alteration of an entry to the detriment of a legal entity or individual. To qualify as a forgery, the change in the entry must be truly false and made with the intent to defraud. In this case, the forged document must look legitimate, otherwise it will be impossible to change the amount of the obligation or debt with its help. Fraud can be committed using a photocopier, computer, typewriter, regular handwriting, etc. This offense can also be carried out by simple erasures.

Falsification of documents is closely related to forgery. This term refers to the creation or falsification of an existing document in such a way as to misrepresent the document with the intent to deceive someone. Unintentional errors in document preparation should not be considered falsification, since an intentional act must be present to classify an event as falsification.

Falsification can also be an omission or omission of an entry if it is deliberately aimed at misinformation of persons familiarizing themselves with the document.

When filling out the job application form, the respondent did not enter anything in the column “Have you been prosecuted?”, although he was imprisoned for fraud and theft.

There are many cases where property is not seized, but is voluntarily transferred by the owner who fell for some trick.

Typical examples: the owner of the goods is paid with counterfeit banknotes, pensioners carry money to buy securities of a fraudulent company, the company makes an advance payment to swindlers to buy goods that no one is going to supply to them.

This would not be theft, but it would be the acquisition of property by fraud.

Business fraud today is a very common and painful phenomenon for entrepreneurs, business owners and companies. I wrote this book, among other things, because I myself have repeatedly found myself a victim of scammers. I think my ignorance of things that were worth knowing played a significant role in this. Read this book. It will help make you less vulnerable to fraud.

III Types of fraud in business (corporate fraud)

Let's look at a number of types of business fraud (types of corporate fraud), using material from the London website of the National Fraud Bureau (NFIB).

Photo from source in bibliography

3.1 Fraud through gaining control of the account and “with the application”

Fraud by gaining account control

Account takeover can occur when a fraudster or computer criminal appears to you as a genuine customer, gains control of your account, and then makes unauthorized transactions. Any account can be obtained by scammers through bank, credit card, email, etc.

Online banking accounts are usually obtained by scammers through the use of phishing, spyware or malware. It is a form of internet crime or computer crime.

Fraud has been committed if you lost money.

"App" scam

When an account is opened using fake or stolen documents not in their name, scammers use other people's accounts to withdraw cash, obtain credit, or commit other deception.

Preventing identity theft can prevent app fraud. Know the information you need to protect yourself. Keep your data private and keep confidential documents in a safe place. If you no longer need a letter or document, discard it; just tear it up and put it in a basket, or even burn it. Always keep a close eye on your finances and loans.

You may receive letters or emails confirming that you have received new cards or loans that you did not apply for. You pay for a subscription or direct debit that you don't know about, for example for using a mobile phone that you don't own.

If you are a victim of identity theft, you may be a victim of an “app” scam; your details could be stolen and used to open a new account in your name.

Fake accounts are usually opened at banks or credit card companies, a quick way for scammers to access funds using victims' details.

But scammers can also use the data to open accounts in your name, such as a mobile phone contract, which will then be billed in your name.

App scams are different from scams using your account. In this case, criminals use your data to launch completely new accounts, whereas in account fraud you provided the data yourself. The difference is that victims may be completely unaware of the app scam because the account was opened without their knowledge.

3.2 Bankruptcy fraud in betting and gambling

Bankruptcy Fraud

Bankruptcy and insolvency scams can involve companies trading fraudulently just before they are declared insolvent or phoenix companies.

A Phoenix company is a company created after a company declares insolvency, a new company is created overnight with the same attributes but is not responsible for the loss of the previous business because they appear to be different entities.

Bankruptcy and insolvency fraud also includes illegal trading when a business is suspended or disqualified. Bankruptcy describes a person's financial status. Victims of bankruptcy and insolvency fraud are typically businesses that provided credit to the bankrupt, such as credit card companies and credit card companies. Fraud was committed if money was lost.

Fraud in betting and gambling

Betting and gambling scams occur when you are made offers of inside information or supposedly crazy systems that will guarantee you profits from gambling - on horse racing, football or various sporting events.

Beware of any scheme that guarantees you will win; gambling, by its very nature, places money on an unknown outcome. Don't bid on behalf of someone else, especially someone you don't know. Ask yourself why someone would sell their secrets if they have knowledge. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably isn't.

How does this happen? You receive a glossy brochure introducing you to a sports insider who has a track record of winning bets. You are asked to pay a subscription fee in advance so that you can receive confidential information that will give you an advantage. You are told that the player cannot place his own bets because they are known to the bookmakers; you and others like you need them to bid on their behalf.

You are offered inside information that is focused on horse racing but can include betting on any sport. Fraudsters do not have inside information or unmatched systems that guarantee winning bets, and you will not be able to increase your chances of winning through these schemes.

In some cases, scammers will use false testimony from others who they claim have taken it upon themselves to give advice or give examples of races where they were right every time. You will be asked to pay a subscription fee for sending you supposedly confidential information.

You may be given a free bet to get you started - this is either a bet on the firm favourite, or a bet made from secret tips given to other victims for all other possible outcomes in the same race or event, so that it only takes one winning victim to mistakenly trust that the system is working.

Scammers will withhold your down payment, your bet or subscription, and will cut off contact with you if your bets lose. This is against racing rules for people in the industry passing on confidential information, so it is unlikely that anyone with inside information will advertise it.

3.3 Business directory and publishing scams

Business Directory Fraud

Business directory fraud occurs when your business is offered free advertising by mail, email, or fax, but is then billed for the service.

Protect yourself. Train your colleagues. Employees who handle external communications must be prepared to challenge calls, letters and invoices. If you receive an offer, do your research. Is the directory legit? Is the company offering you a listing registered with any trade bodies?

Check everything you have related to directories. Don't pay a bill without asking; scammers want you to believe that you will mistake their listing for part of your company's directory listings.

How can this happen? You receive a call asking you to verify your company information for a directory service. You receive a form offering a listing, which must be returned completed to the sender, the caller asks you whether you want to be listed or not. You sign your company's final requirements for a list of directories that you don't remember.

How can this happen? Scammers mail, email, or fax a form to a company, offering a free listing in a business directory, either in the directory or online. You are asked to return the form even if you do not want to place an order, but a small stamp states that by returning the form you are committing to the order and will be charged for the catalog entries.

This is a type of phishing or misrepresentation scam: the directory may not be as well known as it claims, or have very few copies in circulation, and in some cases, it may not even exist. Your company is then provided with a false invoice, with the scammers hoping the money will be paid to them without questioning them. If your company requests an invoice, the fictitious publisher may try to pose as a debt collection agency and send threatening letters.

Posting scam

This type of scam happens when cold callers contact businesses and sell advertising space in a bogus publication for a seemingly good reason. The person receiving the call may be under the impression that the publisher is affiliated with local charities, emergency services, crime prevention, or other worthy causes. Sometimes the caller will say that the business placed an order previously or even that someone from the business agreed to take away the advertising space. Fraudsters may also send invoices regardless of whether the victim has agreed to accept the advertising space. They may track invoices with threats of legal action. Beware of anyone who claims to be one of the following:

Charitable society. Rescue service. 999 Services. Rehabilitation projects. This type of scam is now moving towards scammers pretending to be bailiffs and using pressure tactics by telling victims they must deposit money through the court. Victims then transfer money into the suspect's bank account, even when they are not sure they ever agreed to advertise in the magazine. Please do not send money to these scammers. Fraud was committed if money was lost.

3.4 Verification Fraud. Domain Name Fraud

Verification fraud

When someone gives you a check, they know you can pay in cash. The scammers did everything or falsified it in such a way that the bank would not accept the check. You will end up leaving everything you paid for the check in the scammer's pocket.

Only accept checks from people you know and trust. Ask to be given a chance to explore different payment methods that require different amounts of money. Always use a pen when signing a check. Write clearly and place notes in all empty spaces.

Look for signs of a problem. There may be something suspicious about the check itself or the text about it written on it. Check it out. Let's say you were given a check for more money than agreed upon and you were asked to change it.

How can this happen? Fraudsters may use one of many methods to pay bogus checks. Paying you the money on their check will not show up in your account so they can charge you for goods, cash or services without paying you in return. They may use a counterfeit check that was created by a fraudster to appear real, or a counterfeit check that is genuine but stolen from someone else with a forged signature.

Alternatively, they may give you a check that has been tampered with in some way, such as security features being tampered with, making it look good to you, but will be rejected by the bank. In some cases, they may use disappearing ink when writing the check, so the amount or signature is gone by the time your bank processes it.

You could lose even more money by overpaying. This is when someone pays you or your business using a bad check that is written for more than the agreed upon monetary value. They will give you a reason to write a check for the additional amount and ask you to send it back to them. If you give the difference plus the changes to the scammer in cash, verification becomes impossible and the scammer cuts off all contact.

Fraudsters often use this technique of overpaying checks for bogus jobs or classified ad sales.

Domain Name Fraud

This is about offering you a website address and falsely accusing you. Protect yourself.

Do not respond to cold calls when they offer to buy domain names. Don't buy under pressure. Do your own research with a supplier you know and trust. Know how much it costs to buy a domain name. Know who is supplying your domain name, and be prepared to dispute any invoices from providers you don't know.

You've been called out of blue with an offer for a domain name that's very desirable to you. You are told that someone else is going to buy the address, and you need to decide right now if you want to have that address. You end up being billed for a domain name you don't use or from a supplier you never purchased anything from.

How does this happen? Scammers find domain names that are suitable for you or your business. They will put you under pressure to buy quickly so that you don't have time to check their authenticity or how much the domain name is really worth, or even whether it's for sale at all. They may accept your payment details and cut off all contact after that, without providing you with the domain they were promised.

Some scammers will send bogus invoices for domains you don't own, or look at domains you own and make it look like your real vendor is charging you a renewal fee.

3.5 Use of Assets and Information.

Account fraud

Use of Assets and Information

This is when an organization's assets are used for unofficial purposes. Asset and information exploitation fraud may include fraud by those who provide information to outsiders for personal gain. This type of fraud does not include insiders stealing from the company, such as theft of stationary assets.

Account fraud

Fake invoice scams happen when scammers send an invoice to a company requesting payment for goods or services.

The invoice may indicate that the due date has passed or you may be threatened that failure to pay will affect your credit rating. In fact, the invoice is fake and is for goods and services that you did not order or receive.

3.6 False Accounting Fraud. Fixed fraud

False accounting fraud

False accounting fraud occurs when a company's assets are inflated or liabilities are understated to make it appear that the business is financially stronger than it actually is.

False account fraud involves employees or organizations that alter, destroy or deface any account; or presenting accounts from an individual or organization in a manner that does not reflect the true value or financial performance of that company.

False accounting can occur for a number of reasons:

to obtain additional financing from the bank; for the sake of reporting unrealistic profits;

to inflate stock prices;

for the sake of concealing losses;

to attract clients to show themselves as more successful than they actually are;

to receive a performance-related bonus; to hide the theft.

Whatever the reasons for false accounting, they are all motivated by the need to falsify records, change numbers, or perhaps maintain two sets of financial accounts.

Account fraud activity can be difficult to detect, especially if you run an organization. Some examples of false accounting fraud include:

an employee making inflated expenses;

a customer or employee falsifying accounts to steal money;

an employee who uses false accounting to cover up losses resulting from trading or fraudulent activity.

If you are not alerted to the problem, you will not know about any losses or the criminal activity that is causing them.

At the extreme end of the scale, fraud may mean that the company has suffered significant financial losses and/or is trading while insolvent.

What to do if you are a victim of a false scam?

False accounting is a criminal offence. Therefore, it is necessary to contact the appropriate authority, and it does not matter how much stolen money we are talking about.

Your organization may also want to consider taking steps to recoup any losses from employees who commit fraud. You need to find out the nature and extent of any losses. This can be done by your own accountants or external consultants, but don't wait until they have finished their work before you report their fraud.

Protect yourself from false accounting fraud. Your organization can take the following steps to protect itself from false accounting:

putting up for discussion;

control access to buildings and systems using unique identification and passwords;

limiting and closely monitoring access to confidential information;

ensuring a clear division of responsibilities; consideration of the issue of job rotation; use of multi-level authorities and levels of signatures for payments; Regular reconciliation of bank statements and other accounts; undertaking audit processes and procedures from time to time;

promoting a fraud awareness culture among employees; adopting and implementing a zero-tolerance policy for employee fraud; preparing a clear response plan in case of fraud detection.

Fixed fraud

Fixed line or premium rate fraud is when fraud is committed against telephone companies. Fixed fraud can be done in several ways.

In some cases, scammers gain access to the switch and sell other people the ability to make calls through the switch. This is called Dial Through Fraud (DTF) or Direct Internal System Access (DISA) fraud.

Fixed hoax fraud can include Premium Rate fraud, which occurs when fraudsters significantly increase the number of calls to a premium number in order to increase the revenue generated from it.

The scammer has no intention of paying the bill. The final form of fixed line fraud involves fraudulent applications. In this type of scam, the scammer poses as a phone service with a false name and leaves a bad debt.

3.7 “Government Agency” Fraud. Insurance Fraud

"Government Agency" Fraud

Government scammers are scammers who send formal letters or emails to request money or personal information. The correspondence gives the impression that they are from a government department and implies that they have some form of authority.

The letter or email may inform you that you must register in order to comply with some laws - for a fee.

End of introductory fragment.

Distinctive features of the corporate type of fraud are the problematic nature of detecting offenses and the difficulty of forming an evidence base. Fraudulent actions within large enterprises are always deliberate and aimed at obtaining their own material gain.

Corporate fraud concept

Responsibility for crimes that have signs of corporate fraud is prescribed in the Criminal Code. The legislator defines this type of offense with a list of actions:

• hidden theft of assets;
• an attack with the use of physical violence on the owner of property assets in order to take possession of these assets (an individual may be subject to coercive measures through threats, beatings or injury with a weapon);
• appropriation of someone else's property and its subsequent waste;
• facts of extortion using blackmail and threats;
• open theft of assets;
• causing material damage to the property owner through intentional deception or negligence.

The reasons that motivate illegal activities lie in the ability to hide one’s involvement in what happened. Individuals can count on the fact that it will be impossible to find direct evidence of their guilt, and the presence of only indirect evidence cannot be the basis for criminal prosecution. An additional motivating factor is the chance to justify oneself in the eyes of colleagues and company management.

The reasons for fraudulent acts may include the aggressive impact of environmental factors: temporary financial difficulties for a person, the need to urgently pay for expensive treatment, gambling addiction or bad habits that an individual cannot cope with on his own.

Types of fraud

Fraudulent activities can be classified into:

• Internal, which are carried out by company management and employees.
• External, the participants of which are counterparties of the enterprise and outsiders.

BY THE WAY! Internal corporate fraud is the most common illegal activity. Their peculiarity is the ease of implementation due to the availability of access to material assets and financial resources in the process of implementing work activities.

Manifestations of internal fraud may include:

• poaching the company's clientele;
• supplying competitors with confidential information of a technological or financial nature;
• falsification of documentation using original seals and company letterheads;
• attracting subordinates to carry out work outside the job description to satisfy personal needs;
• early unjustified write-off of assets for the purpose of their appropriation, fraud with the payment of wages to employees.

Based on the nature of the actions, corporate fraud is divided into groups:

• Corruption events.
• Asset appropriation (cash or inventory).
• Preparation of fictitious financial statements with overstatement or understatement of the amount of income (profit).

FOR REFERENCE! The corruption component of fraud is manifested in bribery, provision of preferences for a fee, and extortion.

Scheme

The following corporate fraud schemes are typical for enterprises:

• postscripts with re-grading;
• unjustified write-offs;
• double purchases;
• unaccounted production of additional batches of goods;
• bribes;
• fraud in the implementation of pricing policy;
• illegal contract work.

Fraud with material assets

When organizing the delivery and reception of raw materials, there may be an indication of inflated indicators of the weight of materials, quantity, or writing in documents of a different type of product. Regrading can be organized for any product. Non-existent volume or mass is compensated by impurities of earth, lower class products, garbage or cheaper analogues.

Fraud with inventory items is easily carried out if payments for products are made in cash at the point of shipment. The combination of this scheme with ineffective input control and weak monitoring of procedures for writing off materials into production creates favorable conditions for an increase in theft volumes.

An example of deliberate misgrading and unjustified write-off could be the rejection of normal products with subsequent sale to a specific buyer at reduced prices. The next stage is the sale of this product on the consumer market at market prices and the division of profits between the participants in the scheme. A conspiracy between a supplier and an employee who is responsible for installing equipment or storing and disposing of products can manifest itself in the following scheme:

1. Real purchase of valuable goods.
2. The entire volume of products is written off (in fact, only part of the inventory was subject to write-off, the rest were fictitiously removed from the balance sheet).
3. Repeated purchase for the volume of fictitiously written off materials (its result will be the transfer of funds to the supplier without subsequent delivery).

FOR REFERENCE! The scheme with fictitious write-offs and repeated purchases is most often used in relation to spare parts for transport and equipment, fittings and equipment.

The second method of unjustified write-off concerns expensive equipment. What is available at the enterprise is written off as unfit for use and cannot be repaired, removed from the enterprise and transferred to third parties. The equipment undergoes modernization and is resold back to the same enterprise or another under the guise of a new asset.

Industrial fraud

At production facilities, fraud may be based on overestimating raw material consumption rates. This allows you to write off more materials than are actually used and resell the savings on the foreign market. The second option is to launch unaccounted production from illegally written off raw materials.

Prices and contract work

The following techniques are used in rollback schemes:

• purchasing materials at inflated prices to the detriment of one’s own enterprise;
• lowering prices for fulfilling individual orders for individual clients;
• application of an exclusive discount system, which is available only to selected customers;
• deliberate distortion of prices by displaying inflated price tags when accounting for sales at regular prices.

The main methods of fraud in working with contractors are manifested in the distortion in the documentation of the consumption of raw materials, the area of ​​​​serviced facilities, the imposition of other unnecessary services, the write-off of expensive materials when their cheap analogues are actually used.

Identification and investigation of offenses

Signs of fraudulent schemes in an enterprise may include:

• unusual procedures for employees filling out documentation, asking them to sign blank forms or put stamps on them;
• refusals to take vacations or transfer cases to colleagues;
• an abundance of profitable contracts in a short period of time, concluded by one person;
• receipt of a large number of requests for income in relation to one employee from the judiciary and the FSSP;
• making adjustments to the reporting directly by the director without approval from the accounting department;
• regular occurrence of shortages;
• complaints and suspicions of members of the enterprise team;
• too close contacts between the manager and suppliers;
• high level of turnover of management personnel;
• Frequent changes of jobs by specialists.

If suspicions arise about the introduction of corporate fraudulent techniques, the manager must take measures to collect evidence to bring charges against specific individuals. The best way is to initiate an audit that will reveal inconsistencies and violations in warehouse, production and accounting.

If it is not possible to involve the auditor in the investigation, it is necessary to systematize information regarding the violation:

• what assets were stolen;
• which employees or board members could be interested in implementing the fictitious transaction;
• who has free access to missing objects;
• analysis of methods for concealing stolen goods, checking distribution channels;
• surveying personnel to determine whether there are threats or pressure to induce assistance to those responsible.

Anti-corporate fraud

Preventing the occurrence of fraud within an enterprise should be aimed at strengthening control over the work of personnel. For this purpose, a system of double control and additional verification of officials vested with a wide range of powers is being introduced. Systematic independent expert audits will minimize the risks of financial fraud and fictitious transactions with materials.

It is recommended to create a security service; if necessary, access control of all visitors and employees is introduced. If a violation of labor discipline is detected, the manager must show will and punish the offenders. As a motivating factor for impeccable work, you can use the creation of the most comfortable working conditions and offer employees decent payment for their actions.

Examples

Examples of fraud within enterprises:

1. The employee responsible for concluding transactions with customers, on the eve of signing the contract, transfers information about the subject of the agreement, the amount of the contract and the proposed conditions to a competing company, which at the last moment rejects the client. The employee receives a percentage of the competitor's contract amount.
2. The metal-working machine was sold and registered as scrap metal. The machine was cleaned, lubricated, painted, new technical documentation was issued for it and sold back to the production plant with a 60% markup.
3. Increasing the wage fund while simultaneously reducing staff.
4. Inclusion of “dead souls” in the statements for payment of funds.
5. Organizing the purchase of a consignment of goods at prices above market prices.