Work at Home Scam Alert

As unemployment rises, work-at-home scams flourish

By Vicki Lee Parker

In October, the unemployment rate hit a 14-year high of 6.5 percent. That was bad news for the more than 240,000 people who lost their jobs during that period. But for people who prey on unemployed workers, the high jobless rate is an opportunity to scam vulnerable job seekers out of their money and personal data.

Scam artists know that when times get rough and bills are due, even the most sophisticated job hunters can fall prey to their employment schemes.

That's why all job seekers should educate themselves about job scams. Many of them involve either work-from-home projects or online jobs. The ads are enticing: "Earn $200 a day just by clicking a mouse." "Make $50 to $250 an hour, starting now." "Earn money completing surveys."

I recently clicked on one e-mail that promised, "Work at home, easy work and great pay." The sender included a long testimonial letter telling why he started working for this company. It showed pictures of luxury cars and large homes. All you had to do to earn thousands of dollars a day was sell products on behalf of other companies and you would be paid between 30 percent and 75 percent commission.

To get started, you had to purchase a $49.97 Automated Online Money System. Next the site asked for your name, address and credit card number.

That amount was cheap compared to some others.

Last month, the Federal Trade Commission charged U.S. Work Alliance Inc., also known as Exam Services, a national marketing operation, with violating federal law by deceiving consumers into paying $120 to $140 for materials they thought would help them get federal postal jobs. The materials included a book recounting the history of the postal service, exam instructions and some "practice exams," but nothing about exam dates or job openings.

There may be some real work-at-home and online job opportunities out there, but many are scams. Be aware of basic tips to help know the difference and save yourself the heartache and expense of being victimized.

The FTC recommends that before you agree to start working for such a company, you should ask certain questions and get the answers in writing. The answers should help you determine if this is the job for you and whether it is legitimate.

Questions to ask:

• What tasks will I have to perform? Ask the program sponsor to list every step of the job.

• Will I be paid a salary or will my pay be based on commission?

• Who will pay me?

• When will I get my first paycheck?

• What is the total cost of the work-at-home program, including supplies, equipment and membership fees? What will I get for my money?

Check for complaints against the company with the following:

• The local consumer protection agency.

• Your state attorney general's office.

• The Better Business Bureau.

Be wary. The absence of complaints doesn't necessarily mean the company is legitimate. Unscrupulous companies may settle complaints, change their names or move to avoid detection.

If you have spent money and time on a work-at-home program and now believe the program may not be legitimate, contact the company and ask for a refund. Let company representatives know that you plan to notify officials about your experience. If you can't resolve the dispute with the company, file a complaint with these organizations:

• The Federal Trade Commission. The FTC works for the consumer to prevent fraud and deception. Call 1-877-FTC-HELP (1-877-382-4357) or visit www.ftc.gov.

• The attorney general's office in your state or the state where the company is located. The office will be able to tell you whether you're protected by any state law that may regulate work-at-home programs.

• Your local consumer protection offices.

• Your local Better Business Bureau.

Foreclosure Rescue Scams

South Florida Sun-Sentinel.com
How to avoid fraud
November 23, 2008

How to avoid rescue schemes Foreclosure rescue fraud preys on struggling homeowners who don't know where to turn for help. The best way to avoid becoming a victim is to seek information and ask a lot of questions. If you receive an offer that sounds too good to be true, then it probably is. Here are some tips to avoid getting ripped off: Read and understand all paperwork before signing to ensure you are not giving someone else ownership of your home.Never make mortgage payments to anyone other than your lender or mortgage servicer.Beware of anyone who says you don't need a real estate professional, attorney or title company when selling your home. Be very suspicious if someone offers to pay your mortgage and rent your home back to you. This scheme often involves signing over the deed to your home. Selling your home back to you may be very difficult, if not impossible, under the terms of the contract. Before responding to any person or agency offering to "save" you from foreclosure, check that the organization is approved by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development at www.hud.gov/counseling or 800-569-4287.

Crisis Management- A book Review

Book Review

Harvard Business Review on Crisis Management

Harvard Business School Press 2000

A crisis is an issue that all businesses will encounter at one point or another in time and every business should have a crisis management team in place, designed plans for identified potential crisis's on file and that are exercised and updated on a regular basis. More time than not individuals train in crisis management by individual discipline, IT train for IT issues, Security for Security issues, Media for media issues and the like. What's needed is a book that brings all the basic thought processes together and The Harvard Business Review on Crisis Management does exactly that. It's multi discipline in nature, which is important in preparing Crisis Response Team members for an actual crisis by giving them a broader perspective than their individual area of expertise.

One of the most insightful statements in The HBR on Crisis Management was by Norman Augustine page 3, who was the author of chapter one in this HBR classic and stated that "Almost every crisis contains with in itself seeds of greatness as well as the roots of failure." I find this to be a profound and true statement by Augustine. Every business will face a crisis at some point or another on some scale. I would rate the odds of not encountering a crisis as slim to none. This crisis could be compliance violations such as OSHA, SEC, EEOC or it can be Occupational crime such as trade secrets theft, bid rigging, kickbacks. A crisis could come inform massive internal theft by employees which could leave the company short of operating cash, product recall or a massive food poisoning if your company is in the food services industry. It's how you anticipate and prepare for known hazards can spell life or death for the enterprise.

Augustine went on to sate on page 19 "Asking the people responsible for preventing a problem, if there is a problem is like delivering lettuce by rabbit." Odds are it was insiders that got the organization in the bind in the first place and odds of those who got you into a bind are not the ones to get you out. A dysfunctional culture of backbiting internal politics, failed policies, group think are all part of the reason that organizations manufacture their own problems.

Over all I must call this book a must read for anyone involved or potentially involved in an organizational crisis as a must read and for those that may be Crisis Management Team leaders, The Harvard Business Review on Crisis Management offers the perfect foundation for the design of table top exercises for the CMT.

Fraud 101

Fraud Prevention Tidbit
April 2008

Fraud 101- The Basics
Crimes that a manger or supervisor must investigate today go beyond the traditional time keeping issue. Operating budgets are tighter now than ever and requires a manager to take on more roles than ever before and one of these basic roles includes the ability to investigate financial crimes. To be effective in this area a manager only needs a basic understanding of fraud.

Fraud is theft by trick or misrepresentation of fact. Fraud has some general characteristics that all managers should be able to recognize; fraud is always clandestine in nature, fraud is a breach of a fiduciary duty and has a direct or indirect benefit to the scam artist; fraud will always cost the employer assets. Fraud is generally broken down into three broad categories, asset misappropriation, corruption and fraudulent statements.

Asset misappropriation schemes are further broken down into cash or non- cash. About 90% of asset misappropriation schemes involve cash, this also includes check tampering. Two cash schemes that a manager should know about are fraudulent disbursements and skimming. Fraudulent disbursement uses tricks such as false invoices or fake time cards to trick the organization in to making some sort of payment. Skimming is larceny of cash before it hits the books and enters the accounting system; an example of skimming would be sales persons who takes payment, creates an invoice for a lower amount and then pockets the difference or stealing cash and checks as they come into the organization. People that collect payments with little oversight are especially tempted to skim because in these situations skimming is hard to detect. Always establish safeguards against payment thefts at the point of entry, mail rooms and payment storage areas merit special measures.


Corruption is the wrongful use of a position to influence business transactions to the benefit of themselves or another. Corruption includes kickbacks, bribes, conflicts of interests and bid rigging. Persons in the business of purchasing are especially venerable to these types of schemes; the dollar amounts involved in corruption can run into the millions. A contractor wanting a contract may try to obtain it with offers of travel, entertainment, discounts of their particular product of service or may offer other rewards for obtaining the business; some may sub contract a portion out to the purchasing agents' friend or family member. A manager should know his or her organizations’ guidelines for awarding contracts and anything that doesn't fall within these guidelines deserves closer attention.

The last basic classification of fraud that a Security professional should know about is fraudulent statements. Financial statements can generally be falsified by a number of methods; one of the favorite methods of falsifying statements is by over stating revenue or assets, and understating liabilities. This method overstates the value of the organization and keeps it appealing to perspective buyers, including potential stock purchasers and creditors. Another way that financial statements are falsified are by using timing differences; as a guideline revenue and expenses must be recorded in the same accounting period when the transaction took place. Transactions should not be posted ahead or back dated to another accounting period. By using various timing differences a financial statement can be adjusted as needed. You can consider the use of timing differences and overstating revenue and or understating liabilities both as classic ways of cooking the books. To falsify a financial statement the perpetrator would require a least a basic knowledge of accounting and the more knowledgeable the perpetrator, the more elaborate the falsification as a rule.

When it comes to preventing fraud, the two most effective methods are establishing an effective abuse hot-line for the organization and regular employee education. These two methods go hand in hand in both the prevention and detection of fraud and abuse within an organization and can't be recommended highly enough in my opinion.


Brian Taylor CFE, CPP
Certified Fraud Examiner
Certified Protection Professional

Positive Pay Options

Check Tampering

Check tampering is the physical alteration of a check for fraudulent purposes and according to the 2006 Association of Certified Fraud Examiners Report to the Nation check tampering had a median loss of $120,000. Positive pay options are a good defense against check tampering and can come in several varieties.

1. Basic positive pay allows you to send a pre-authorized list of checks for payment to the bank.

2. Reverse positive takes place when the bank notifies you before payment is made on a check.

3. Payee Positive pay occurs when the check number, amount and payee are all confirmed before payment.

4. Image positive pay arranges for an image of the check, front and back to transmitted back to you before payment is made.

The benefits of a positive pay program can’t be overstated; it can allow you to save hundreds of thousands of dollars in both time and money. All it takes is a quick phone call to you bank to find out more.

It's Just Not Worth It!

Here is the sad story of a fast food manager that stole money from her employer, the woman has been arrested and charged. Unfortunately she will have to live with the stigma of a criminal conviction. Somethings just aren't worth it and employers monitor your employees for financial problems or employees living beyond their income, these are clues that something may be seriously wrong. Often a person will make a tragic mistake in life and given the situation hopefully the woman involved will not make such choices in the future. Early intervention and hire financial counseling during an employee's new hire orientation are possible solutions to these types of situations.


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Former McDonalds Manager Accused Of Embezzlement
Posted: 2:28 PM Jan 23, 2008Last Updated: 2:28 PM Jan 23, 2008
A A A
It wasn't the "Hamburgler" stealing from a Greenville McDonalds -- police say it turned out to be the restaurant manager.
Sandra Johnson was arrested Tuesday on eight counts of embezzlement.
Police say between October and December of last year Johnson took $48,000 from the business. She had been manager of the McDonald's on Greenville Boulevard near 10th Street for the past two years.
Johnson is now in the Pitt County Detention Center on a $20,000 bond.

Find this article at: http://www.witntv.com/home/headlines/14084757.html

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And The Beat Goes On

Fraudsters never stop in their efforts to separate people from their money. Charity fraud is something to pay special attention to during this holiday season.

Sheriff warns of donation fraud

By Kelly Townsend
The Times-Journal

Published December 28, 2007

Someone is making fraudulent calls for donations claiming to be with the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Department, and Sheriff Jimmy Harris is warning of the fraud.

“The Mounted Unit’s Christmas for Kids program is not soliciting money by telephone in the community,” Harris said. “We have received reports from several citizens that they have had telephone calls from individuals in which their banking information is requested in order to give donations for the Sheriff’s Department Christmas charity.”

Harris said reports of the fraudulent calls came in before and after Christmas.

“But at this point we haven’t any reports of anyone who has fallen for the scam,” Harris said.

Harris said Christmas for Kids never requested donations by telephone.

“In fact, we encourage people to never give out personal information over the telephone,” Harris said.

Harris said if anyone receives a call to, get as much information as possible and report it to deputies.

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Copyright © 2007 The Times-Journal