Important lessons for employees, bosses from Fraud Awareness Week

Zaakir Mohamed | image supplied

South Africa is now accelerating towards the end of the year; it’s a time when many employees will be tempted to go online or into a store to take advantage of deals around Black Friday, Cyber Monday and even Christmas.

With the economic pressures exerted by Covid-19, it may also be the time when staff members seek ways to live beyond their means to fill their expectations and financial obligations.

The bottom line is that this is a time when opportunists who may not have the best of intentions turn to fraudulent activities

On the one hand, employees may be taken in, for instance, by scammers hiding behind Black Friday or Cyber Monday ‘deals’ that look too good to be true. Or they may open themselves up to bank card scams and, even worse, they may be tempted to commit fraud themselves within the workplace.

Looking out for staff

I recommend that staff be made aware of the following risks that could result in a threat to their own - and even their company’s - cybersecurity.

Beware links in emails, attachments from retailers and pop-up ads: Be careful of emails asking for personal information, particularly if the source is unsolicited and pops up in an unrequested email. Likewise, staff should be careful of cybercriminals posing as retailers and asking recipients to click on email attachments.

This is where cyber attackers hide malware, and when this occurs during office hours, it also opens up businesses to cyberattacks.

Another similar way of getting unsuspecting online surfers to give away their personal details or allow harmful programming onto their systems is to open pop-ups or ads that suddenly appear on computer screens. If a retailer’s offer or deal is a legitimate one, it will also appear on their official website. Rather shop directly from the official source.

Secure debit and credit cards: ATM fraud and card skimming has become big business for fraudsters over the past few years.

Make staff aware that they should always keep bank cards very safe when making payments on card devices in retailers, and look out for suspicious devices attached to card slots at ATM machines. Both of these can steal card numbers and other data and enable criminals to help themselves to funds and can relate equally to personal as well as business cards.

Looking out for business

Employees who find themselves under a financial strain, particularly at times when spending habits are tempted to the limits, may turn towards defrauding the companies for whom they work. There are numerous red flags that companies should look out for which may be indicative of possible fraudulent activity. Among these are:

• Invoices with brief descriptions for services rendered/goods supplied;
• Lack of supporting documentation for payments;
• Duplicate payments being made to suppliers/service providers;
• Short-term changes to vendor details;
• Unjustifiable sole source contracting;
• Employees becoming secretive about their customers, suppliers or even their duties.

Alternatively, a staff member may suddenly begin to be very secretive about their transactions with customers or suppliers, withholding details of transactions, and demonstrating an unwillingness to share duties with other staff members.

But irrespective of whether it’s about keeping a company’s staff safe from fraudsters, or keeping a company safe from its staff, the most important concept to instil is a sense of awareness. Detecting fraudsters begins with a clear understanding and identification of where criminal activity can take place, and where the vulnerabilities lie –either with an individual or within an organisation.

With Fraud Awareness Week currently underway - 15-21 November, I believe this is the ideal opportunity for businesses to educate their staff to ensure they don’t become victims of fraud, and in turn for management to educate themselves, and others in their teams, as to what to look out for to detect incidents of fraud occurring within their own operations.

We may have the holidays coming up, but crime never takes a break. Forewarned, on all fronts, is forearmed.