How CEOs can protect themselves from fraud
As the CEO of any particular company, do you ever worry about fraud and how the illegal act could harm your business? Just last month in Canada, police charged 33 people with over 200 fraud offences. This criminal ring was responsible for defrauding banks and average citizens out of over $2 million. And even though the alleged criminals are in custody, victims still may never see their money again.
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If you’re the head of a company, then it’s important for you to protect said company. For your convenience, we’ve put together a few tips that could potentially assist you with avoiding various acts of fraud. Take a look!
Get protection and verify it works
If step one is taking the proper steps to secure your company with an adequate fraud protection system, then step two is making sure said system works. It’s very important to not only verify that your company is taking anti-fraud work practices, but also making sure those practices are being completely followed and are successfully doing the trick to ensure your company’s resources are safe.
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Make sure everyone knows procedure
Once you have the proper procedures set up to ensure that your company is safe from fraud, you will need to ensure that all employees are well aware of these procedures and properly know how to handle situations were fraud could be taking place. Specifically, those who work in critical areas were fraud is more likely to take should be completely comfortable with the anti-fraud system.
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Anonymous tips and recording
It may be hard to believe, but internal fraud can and does take place within a company. Yes, it’s important to trust your employees, but you also have to have the company’s best interest at heart. This sounds like a slippery slope and often can be, so try this tip. Set up a system where employees can anonymously report any and all suspected fraud that could be taking place. The earlier that fraud is committed, the larger chance of financial loss will happen.
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Internal and external audits
Both internal and external audits are extremely important for a company, as each allows for different types of fraud checking. For example, a surprise internal audit may remove an employee’s temptation to commit fraud, as well as increase the chance of actually catching someone in the middle of committing the act. Secondly, external audits not only comply with various laws and regulations, but when properly conducted, can eventually help a company grow.
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