Protocols, skepticism best defense against fraud

If you haven’t been impacted by the rampant rise in fraud on both personal data and business data, I’m here to tell you some bad news. It’s a matter of when you will be affected, not if you will be affected.

Imposters, technology and to an extent our own laziness has allowed this industry to thrive. Basic technology tools like Adobe Acrobat can allow someone to steal your bank information and create checks that look much like your own business or personal checks and make off with funds before you are aware the money has gone missing. More elaborate schemes will attempt to defraud you overtime and with small amounts at first, but then those requests get larger in dollar figures until you finally realize you’ve been paying for something and receiving nothing in exchange.

My current staff is made up of 30 professionals. We are constantly in a learning and discovery process with fraud. Our skills were recently subjected to a stress test, and fortunately, the protocols worked and we prevented a relatively minor fraud from making it through.

In my personal life, I prevented a potential fraud in recent weeks. Again, it was by virtue of maintaining a healthy dose of skepticism and following a system of protocols from my professional life.

In both circumstances, the fraud was perpetrated on the knowledge that there was a time-sensitive discussion going on. The business fraud centered on sending funds. The personal fraud centered on having me call a number at which point I’m sure I would have been asked to disclose personal details.

With the business fraud, we received an invoice that had a proper logo and contact name on the invoice, a valid phone number for the entity and the email seemed mostly legitimate, aside from some typos which one could attribute to the urgent communication. The sender's address was somewhat suspect, but not completely unreasonable.

On the personal fraud attempt, I received a phone call claiming to be from an IRS call center wanting to help settle a dispute with an urgency to call that day to preserve any potential payment options. I am contesting a notice from the IRS and the communications via mail are very explicit that I will not be contacted via phone; all correspondence will be in written form.

When a fraud is attempted in your personal or professional world, the main thing to do is slow down and breathe. Consider the request with a clear head and do not operate on emotion. If you are unsure, ask another professional to weigh in on the matter. Far better to call a tax professional about something you get from the IRS and be billed for their time than to pay money and be worse off afterwards.

You may be familiar with personal scams that ask you to purchase gift cards and send the numbers to an email or call with the numbers. The IRS will never request gift cards as a form of payment. In the business world, it’s likely to be a wire transfer because those are irreversible. Be suspect of Zelle/Venmo payment requests also, but bear in mind that many small businesses use these legitimate payment systems. If you are dealing with a large business (i.e. Walmart) and they request a Zelle payment, that should raise a flag. If your local lawnmower requests a Venmo payment, that is reasonable.

Here are some best practice tips to keep your business (and personal) funds safe:

1. If you receive a request/invoice for payment, consider if you actually contracted or requested the service/product.
2. Review the document and email for suspicious items. Misspellings, weird email domains, unusual wording (the use of kindly for example).
3. ALWAYS call to verify wire instructions. Best option, call someone you already have a number for at the business – even if they don’t handle banking. They will connect you to the proper person. Next best option is to find the company website and look for a number from their contact page. Send a message to them through the website if you need someone to call you because they don’t have a number listed.
4. NEVER call from a number in the email or on the invoice. This is likely a spoofed number and they will simply tell you whatever is necessary to get you to comply.
5. Try to do wires a day later; give yourself time to sleep on the matter if you have reservations.
6. If you are a larger business with multiple departments, make sure there is one singular point for all wire transfers to go through; generally this will be Treasury or Accounting. This is your gatekeeper, and they need authority to stop any payment at any time if they suspect fraud. Better to be a day late on payment than to lose your operating cash on a bad transaction.

Fraud attempts are a reality you must accept. You do not need to be a victim. If you’ve fallen victim to fraud, don’t hide in shame. Share your story at professional network events. Expose the items that deceived you and help strengthen the business community. Post online when you prevent an attack – share the information to help shutdown the opportunities fraudsters have to deceive us.

Dan Bergeron is chief accounting officer with Weitzman, a retail real estate and property management company.

^{Local News Matters.}

The Branch Herald relies on reader support to keep local news alive, and strong local news builds strong communities. Support local journalism by subscribing or donating. You also can sign up to our FREE newsletter here and receive the news in your inbox each week.