Entrepreneur Magazine‘s December issue includes a short article about click fraud. What is click fraud, you say? Companies can advertise their wares via pay-per-click advertisements. These are usually very short, with a few key words and a link to the advertisers website. Using services such as Google, the companies pay …
A federal lawsuit against match.com accuses the company of luring customers into subscription renewals via emails from fake suitors. It is alleged that employees of match.com sent emails to members and went on sham dates in order to get subscribers to extend their subscriptions. A separate lawsuit accuses Yahoo of …
The second part of this fraud story involving Bielinski Brothers Builders Inc. touches on the more personal side of the fraud. The brothers were defrauded by their CEO, Robert Brownell, who was responsible for a total loss of between $10 million and $20 million. The brothers had a gut feeling …
Those familiar with internal fraud (i.e. committed by your own employees) know it is expensive, particularly when it involves executives. The executives have more access to information and assets, and that leads to bigger frauds. Bielinski Brothers, a large builder of homes in southeastern Wisconsin, apparently didn’t suspect one of …
A survey released by Cybersource, a provider of electronic payment services, says that merchants will lose $2.8 billion to online fraud this year. Yikes!!! The threat is growing, but apparently companies aren’t doing much more in the way of personnel. Full story here.
Yesterday I had an opportunity to emcee an event focused on the prevention and detection of corporate fraud. The event was sponsored by Jefferson Wells International, The Business Journal of Greater Milwaukee, BDO Seidman, and Foley & Lardner. Our fraud event drew a crowd of about 75 professionals from companies …
According to the 2004 Report to the Nation, a study done by the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, anonymous reporting mechanisms (read: hotlines) are highly effective tools to detect fraud. Internal frauds are most often detected through tips from employees, customers, and vendors. Sarbanes Oxley requires audit committees to establish …
Oversight Systems surveyed 208 Certified Fraud Examiners earlier this year, inquiring as to whether or not the controls imposed by Sarbanes-Oxley are believed to be effective. The survey found that while fraud examiners believe SOX helps with fraud identification, few believe that the culture of business leaders will be affected …
