It Takes a Village to Prevent Fraud

The title may be a take-off from another common phrase, but I think that in this context it is true. Having one employee or a group of employees in charge of fraud prevention without buy-in or awareness from the majority of employees is not effective. I have seen where management checks off the checklist for fraud prevention because they have a department or individual in charge of fraud prevention.

Frauds, often times present specific red flags and employees often times see those flags, but don’t put the red flag and the fraud event together until after an investigation commences. Putting the scheme together isn’t their primary job function or should it be. Their job responsibilities should include reporting those red flags to management via a hotline or another anonymous method so they can be investigated promptly. 

Fraud prevention education awareness for all employees will lower the perceived opportunity of fraudsters and will help the majority of employees help management prevent fraud. How is your organization accomplishing this task?

If your organization would like to continue a discussion on this topic, or other fraud related topics, please email me at [email protected].