Many Canadians are exposed to fraud each year. Here’s how business owners can help

Many Canadians are subjected to fraud and scams every year, and to coincide with Fraud Awareness Month in March, CTVNews.ca takes a take a look at among the pink flags for people and companies.

A survey by Ipsos exhibits many Canadians are falling sufferer to fraud, the most typical being bank card fraud, e-mail/phishing scams and debit card fraud.

The on-line survey, commissioned by Chartered Professional Accountants of Canada, a nationwide group representing accountants, discovered 43 per cent of surveyed Canadians have fallen sufferer to not less than one kind of fraud. Ipsos surveyed 2,005 Canadians 18 years or older between Jan. 3 to five this 12 months.

Fifty-four per cent of respondents stated they reported a fraud scenario to their monetary establishment, whereas 27 per cent recall telling a member of the family that they had been defrauded. Another 22 per cent shared news that they had been subjected to fraud with pals.

Some (17 per cent) who have been scammed contacted the group the place they believed the fraudulent transaction was made.

These findings are a priority to Douglas Kalesnikoff, affiliate professor on the Edwards School of Business on the University of Saskatchewan, who stated if companies are capable of acknowledge the pink flags and forestall fraud can assist decrease the danger for all Canadians

“Somebody could be running a scam on your business and you’re not even aware of it,” he instructed CTVNews.ca on Friday. “The company needs to have a good way to monitor how things are going with their various customers.”

In some situations, companies might not be instantly conscious their firm is being misrepresented by fraudsters. As extra Canadians have gotten conscious of scams concentrating on them, Kalesnikoff says there are issues to look out for from the business perspective.

WHAT ARE THE RED FLAGS

Fraudsters can goal companies similar to people with a variety of techniques. Some scammers could use threats to scare or entice a business into sending them cash or sharing private info.

The Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre created a checklist of scams affecting companies in Canada which embody extortion threats, bomb threats, falsely billing the corporate, stealing an government’s e-mail tackle for wire fraud, ransomware assaults and extra.

Kalesnikoff says probably the most widespread scams attacking companies are inducements to pay or falsely billing the corporate. In this occasion, an worker could wrongly pay for a service or product.

“A lot of times some of the frauds on businesses are perpetrated by the employees of the business,” he stated.

Kalesnikoff says workers may very well be taking stock, cash or making “special arrangements” with a provider.

“Oftentimes, the businesses have to worry about not only who they’re interacting with externally – with suppliers and customers — but also internally, with the employees…are they being possibly perpetrating a fraud?,” Kalesnikoff stated.

One of the pink flags to look out for is the place and who the corporate is interacting with and if they’re taking any threats critically. To do that, Kalesnikoff suggests companies have a suggestions system in place.

“By reviewing these surveys, you might be able to detect (if) there seems to be an issue that customers are upset about,” he stated.

Listening to suppliers and monitoring the fame of the business can assist detect if an organization is being portrayed falsely. This kind of rip-off also can present monetary indicators, Kalesnikoff stated.

“If you’re also paying more for your goods than you should, because somebody’s supplier is scamming you…That will show up in your profitability as to how profitable you are,” he stated.

WHAT ARE PREVENTATIVE MEASURES

Kalesnikoff says a whistleblower hotline, the place different workers can report suspicious exercise, is useful.

“So a lot of times, companies will find that something fraudulent is happening, because a fellow employee is seeing somebody else do something,” he stated.

However, to stop workers from desirous to commit fraud, Kalesnikoff says it needs to be instilled inside the ethics of the corporate.

“For example, let’s say that they (the company) puts a lot of pressure on their salespeople to make certain sales targets,” he stated.

What might occur on this state of affairs is workers might “cut corners or give false representations to customers,” Kalesnikoff stated. “An organization has to be careful as to what sort of compensation plans or what motivations that they are supplying to the employees,” he added.

More companies in Canada have been subjected to ransomware assaults, like Indigo Books & Music Inc., the place hackers try and acquire cash or private info from clients or workers.

As know-how turns into extra refined, Kalesnikoff says firms needs to be investing cash and power to stop such cyberattacks.

“It gets down to a real system of making sure you have the controls and the firewalls and protection of your information,” he stated. “And (that) you have appropriate staffing of knowledgeable individuals watching for the possibility and making sure that their systems are secure.”

WHAT TO DO AFTER BEING SCAMMED

The Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre (CAFC) says after being scammed the very first thing to do is “collect your thoughts” and “stay calm.”

Individuals and companies are inspired to collect all details about the fraud together with paperwork, receipts and copies of emails or textual content messages.

Then, victims of fraud ought to contact their monetary establishment to report the incident in order that the account will be flagged and passwords modified. The CAFC asks individuals to report fraud to credit score bureaus Equifax and TransUnion and to the CAFC.

“Businesses should have a fraud reaction plan,” Kalesnikoff stated. “Typically, what you want to be able to do about it is investigate what happened, how it happened, how you can prevent it from happening again.”

Kalesnikoff encourages companies to watch social media and be “cognizant” of what’s going on to make sure fraudsters don’t goal the corporate once more.

“Listen to what your employees are saying, listen to what customers are saying,” he stated.

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Contact the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre toll free at 1-888-495-8501 or by way of the Fraud Reporting System.

Equifax: 1-800-465-7166. After making language choice, say “fraud” or press 3

TransUnion: 1-800-663-9980 and choose choice 3 for Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system to position your alert.