The 3 Most Common Types of Fraud That Businesses Experience

There are many ways that a business will experience fraud, and all of them are expensive. Fraud can become such a big problem that it threatens the survival of your company. The following are three of the most common forms of fraud a business can experience, and how these problems can be dealt with.

Workers’ Compensation Fraud

This is one of the biggest issues with fraud, and a business must pay attention to it. There are employees who will either fake an injury they claim happened at work, or they will exaggerate an injury they had at work. Either way, this can be expensive for a business owner.

Fraudulent claims will make your insurance premiums much higher than they should be. A private investigation company can place an employee who has filed a suspicious workers compensation claim under surveillance. Any activity they engage in that will prove their injury is exaggerated or even non-existent can be documented. Our investigation firm also understands all of the laws governing surveillance, so nothing will be done illegally.

Employee Theft

Every business owner understands that theft is a major problem, especially those in the retail business. However, much of the attention to theft surrounds the customers, but employee theft can be just as big a problem, if not a bigger problem, than customer theft.

There are certain employees who will be prone to stealing; many of which can be screened out before they are hired. This is why it is important to do background checks before hiring new employees. This service is done routinely for business owners by our private investigation firm. However, if you suspect theft from current employees, there are other ways our company can help as well. A thief can go to great lengths to avoid being caught in a working environment. A private investigator disguised as a new employee is often the only way to uncover employee theft.

Payroll Fraud

Payroll fraud usually comes in the form of falsifying an employee’s work hours. The most common example is when another employee punches a time card for a coworker who is going to be late or who is leaving work early without permission. Either way, the missing worker will get paid, even though they are not at work.

If this happens on a regular basis, it can add up to a significant amount of money. In some businesses, this problem can be rampant. Labor costs are already a big part of a company’s overhead, so this type of fraud can seriously affect profits. We can help you with this problem. There are ways to gather information on employees’ logging of work hours, and do it legally.

All of the above sources of fraud can be discovered with a variety of private investigative techniques. We can help with surveillance of employees during and after work hours, and we can do this legally. In addition, if the situation warrants it, we can go undercover as an employee and get information about theft or fraud in your company.