FraudCaster

According to a report entitled, Occupational Fraud: A Study of the Impact of an Economic Recession, “88% of the Certified Fraud Examiners polled indicated that they anticipate a slight or significant increase in fraudulent activity” during the next 12 months.Occupational fraud is defined as “the use of one’s occupation for personal enrichment through the deliberate misuse or misapplication of the employing organization’s resources or assets” (The Association of Fraud Examiners, The Report to the Nation on Occupational Fraud and Abuse, Austin: ACFE, 1996, p.4)

What are you doing to protect your valuable assets against the employee who desires to steal them?

Medium to large businesses tend to have the resources to put the necessary anti-fraud measures in place. Not that this eliminates fraud, it doesn’t. However, the more anti-fraud measures that a business incorporates, the less the impact when fraud strikes.

What about small business? According to the 2008 Report to the Nation on Occupational Fraud and Abuse by the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, small businesses are hit the hardest. Small businesses are “especially vulnerable to occupational fraud” because “there is a greater degree of trust inherent in a situation where everyone knows each other by name and face”.

There is often a lack of adequate internal controls which is the most commonly cited factor that allows fraud to occur.

If you are a small business (meaning one with less than 100 employees), be aware of these facts and take the necessary steps to improve the security of your assets.