What are some of the leading fraud risks in business today?
The leading sources are check scams, employee embezzlement, and wire or Internet fraud. Recently, the industry has been seeing an especially high number of counterfeit check frauds, such as lottery scams, Nigerian funds stories, secret-shopper offers and other Internet scams. How do counterfeit check scams work and how can businesses protect themselves? One of the most common tactics is to steal legitimate business checks from the mail. Criminals use a solution to wash out the payee, then type in a new one. Many times the criminals don’t change the amount of the check, to lessen the chances of detection. Businesses often don’t know this is happening to them until a vendor calls to check on a late payment. Criminals can use account and bank numbers to create their own counterfeit checks. Sometimes they scan the logo and signature from a stolen check to create new ones. To help prevent these kinds of frauds, companies should review their statements and canceled check images promptly and
