Fraud touches each and every one of us sometime in our lives. It’s never pretty and it is the worst feeling of being violated without being touched. Someone somewhere took something of yours and used it. Whether by a random act of guessing the right number or by stalking you and stealing your wallet or purse, it is right up there with having your underwear drawer gone through. At the very least they could leave a ‘thank you’ somewhere for you to find, but ‘no’ they just take what they want and run.
Fraud week has been going on for the last twenty-five years and while the rest of us just went on with our lives 65,000 people worldwide have stood together and said ‘enough is enough. This page will give you more details on what goes on during fraud week. But before you visit there, here are a few things to know about fraud.
• Worldwide 5% of businesses and organizational income is taken from them because of fraud. To put that in monetary terms, that’s $730 billion dollars.
• Small businesses lose an average of $150,000 a year. Small businesses can’t afford that kind of hit and a lot will go out of business.
• Prevalent fraud in a smaller businesses is check tampering, skimming, payroll fraud, and expenditures for reimbursement.
• With a high risk credit card processing merchant account, you are protected as best as possible.
What can help
Companies have noticed that with a hotline, 59% of the fraud going on can be prevented. Anonymous tips can and will lead to the thieves, liars and pickpockets of the company. Not only that, but it can also lead to the end of a lot of people doing it again.
Fraud week
Fraud week and those folks that felt the same way, decided twenty-five years ago that November 3-9th should be the week to educate the world on how to decrease loss for business and organizations. It is dedicated to the awareness, detection, and prevention.
With a little research, you can learn how to do seminars on fraud detection, how to train your employees and managers to look for it, and what to do once you have noticed it.
During fraud week you can watch on Twitter the new things that are happening. #fraudweek and see what new avenues are available for those wanting to prevent it.
ACFE
On the AFCE website, you can learn how to become a member and what to do if you are a fraud victim. They have classes that can be downloaded as well as many other learning tools. You can also customize a press release and announce you have become a member and will no longer tolerate fraud. At that many people, growing stronger can only help in the prevention of something so nasty, as thievery.
So take a look
Don’t be shy about looking at all the resources provided by the AFCE and work to prevent fraud worldwide. It really is something that invades a lot of our organizations and businesses and should be stomped out at the earliest availability.