Insider Fraud
The threat of fraud from those within a company or organisation is a growing problem, and one that all too often is allowed to continue uninhibited by the target business due to a lack of proactive measures.
NatWest, in 2020 reported fraud cost UK business £190m a year. More startlingly, about 40% of that figure is stolen by staff. Fraud carried out by insiders can potentially be far more damaging than externally perpetrated financial crime, not only because the risks are higher but it is often harder to prevent and detect.
Employee fraud can take many forms ranging from, fraudulent job applications, diversion of assets, theft of intellectual property, misappropriation of money or unlawfully disclosing personal data.
For Tenet, the approach to tackling this type of fraud is to identify the organisations key assets that are most at risk and then advising on the areas of weakness in a business’s processes and procedures concerning those assets.
There is no one size fits all, so we aim to implement improvements to have a practical and real impact on the reduction of the opportunities for exploitation.
Examples of such measures include the changes in processes which causes exposure to risk, developing recruitment processes, directing signing up to fraud prevention databases which share information on known fraudsters, introducing clear anti-fraud and “whistle-blowing” policies and creating an environment which understands and takes internal fraud seriously; being open and frank about incidents that occur and taking swift and effective action against any perpetrators.
Being sensitive to employee morale and alert to any grievances is also important to reduce the risk of an employee turning against its employer.
To discover more about the world of financial crime and fraud please see our Fraud Hub.
