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Home | Fraud Search 
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Proven Methods For Reducing Losses to Fraud

If you sell goods or services on credit, you're on the front lines against all kinds of fraud artists. Here we've compiled everything you'll need to establish bullet-proof anti-fraud procedures for your credit and collection operation.

From years of experience, we know it's far more cost effective to have systems in place to spot fraud up front, before it happens, than to try to get your money back after-the-fact. That's nearly always impossible.

In this section of our site you'll find a series of best practices that will help you and you staff setup a world-class system for minimizing business credit fraud in your operation. We've culled these from the best fraud fighters anywhere, from Warren Buffett's and Howard Schilit's techniques and observations to the wisdom of Credit Today's Rob Lawson. Rob formerly headed up NACM's Loss Prevention Department and was a regular lecturer at the FBI Academy at Quantico on credit fraud.

Checklist: Major Online Seller's Top Seven Risk Factors of Fraud For Web-based Orders
As Internet-based orders rise, so does fraud. Here are the seven risk factors you need to watch out for if you want your profits to keep track with your Web sales. Once you have a distribution chan . . .  keep reading
Lessons from a Master on Recognizing Questionable Accounting Practices
Lessons from a Master on Recognizing Questionable Accounting Practices Do You Have a Customer on the Way to Being the Next Enron? Will You Be Able to Spot Them in Time to Save Your Company Money? We recently had the opportunity to sit in on a talk for securities analysts by accounting professor-turned top Wall Street advisor-Dr. Howard Schilit. "This is a great time for accountants," said Schilit, who describes himself as financial statement pathologist. In today's post-Enron climate, he said, "We are treated like rock stars!" . . .  keep reading
Small West Bank Town With Dozen's of Bustouts to Its Credit - U.S. Government Checks to Bustout Operators?
In Deir Dibwan, "They're In the Bustout Business" The small West Bank town of Deir Dibwan, just a few miles northeast of the late Yassar Arafat's old headquarters, has a population of . . .  keep reading
Here's How You Can See Clearly Through Smoke and Mirrors of Managed Earnings
By Cindy Moorhead
Financial fraud is a very serious matter to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. SEC Commissioner Isaac C. Hunt, Jr. stated in a speech given in April of this year that about 100 of the SEC's . . .  keep reading
Expert Outlines Trends and Tips You Can Use to Spot Frauds
Expert Outlines Trends and Tips You Can Use to Spot Frauds We recently spoke with Gary Bares, founder of Verifraud, a firm which specializes in helping credit execs manage fraud risk. Before founding Verifraud, Bares built and ran the credit fraud risk management area for Comark, a $1.5 billion computer distributor/reseller. Recently, Bares conducted a study of over 700 credit fraud attempts in multiple industries over a five-year period. The study examined the characteristics of fraud and what credit analysts believe is true vs. what is actually true when it comes to identifing the most common ways a fraud can trick credit people. . . .  keep reading
Memorize This and You'll Be Worth a Fortune to Your Company: Schilit's Seven Shenanigans
Dr. Howard Schilit, who has studied accounting shenanigans for his entire career, says that this chart summarizes every accounting trick he's ever seen. One: Recording Revenue Too Soon or of . . .  keep reading
So You Think It Can't Happen to You?
By Susan Lujans, CCE
You are well educated, experienced, and work for a respected company. You put in place policies and procedures to protect your A/R investment. You are a team player. You safeguard your business inform . . .  keep reading
Is It REALLY a SALE? Three Principals of Revenue Recognition
"Revenue Recognition" is the accounting term referring to when a sale is properly booked. In the recent corporate fraud scandals, many companies were found to be playing fast and loose with their reve . . .  keep reading
The Streets Are Paved with Gold! Maybe Not, But the Pockets of Some of Our Visitors Are Being Lined With US Dollars
March 1, 2002
A Palestinian* Front Man Reveals the Ins and Outs of a New Twist on Foreign Aid in an Exclusive Interview with Credit Today Poor Mohammed. To hear him tell it, some fraudsters are little more than . . .  keep reading
Can You Call Your Customer a Crook at a Bankruptcy Hearing and Get Away With It?
By Scott Blakeley
The check for payment on the first shipment of goods to your new customer comes back stamped NSF. Your collection call to the customer is met with, "We have just filed Chapter 11." After making a recl . . .  keep reading
You Take the Gavel: Customer Sells Your Goods to Pay Other Creditors: Is This Fraud? If It Is Fraud, Will Your Claim Survive the Bankruptcy?
By Scott Blakeley
THE FACTS OF THE CASE: You sell your product on unsecured credit to a sole proprietor business. The customer uses the proceeds from the sale of the product you provided to pay other creditors a . . .  keep reading
Seven Risk Factors Omaha Steaks Monitors To Take Take the Sizzle Out of Internet Fraud
As Internet-based orders rise, so does fraud. Here are the seven risk factors you need to watch out for if you want your profits to keep track with your Web sales. Once you have a distribution chan . . .  keep reading
Accounting Guru: Three Top Financial Shenanigans
Accounting expert Dr. Howard Schilit, the author of Financial Shenanigans: How to Detect Accounting Gimmicks & Fraud in Financial Reports said in a recent interview in the Journal of Business Strategy that there are three "financial shenanigans" that are most prevalent. The top three "all deal with companies setting up reserves and shifting revenues and expenses forward or backward. Often they create some kind of reserves as kind of a cookie jar to dip into. It is common to take one-time restructuring charges. This is very easy to do: a CEO will say, 'We need to lay off 5,000 people and shut down two plants.' So the company will record an expense, a charge, which is then a liability." . . .  keep reading
With 53,000 Customers in a High-Risk Industry, Fraud Could Be a Big Problem: Here's How Virginia T's Keeps It to a Minimum
With 53,000 Customers in a High-Risk Industry, Fraud Could Be a Big Problem: Here's How Virginia T's Keeps It to a Minimum Meet Monique. Credit Manager Ann Riggs got her first introduction sometime in the fall of 2001 and has been trying to spread the news about her ever since. On Riggs' desk at Virginia T's, a Petersburg, Va.-based sportswear company, sits a binder bulging with information about Monique. Some of it Riggs dug up on her own. Other information she got from industry colleagues, through her role as chairperson of the National Association of Credit Management Sportswear Distributors Group. "One of the things we have ... come a long way with is fraud awareness," she says. "It wouldn't be possible without the credit group." . . .  keep reading
You Take The Gavel: Your Customer Files for Chapter 7, Then You Discover He Lied on His Credit Application. Can He Still Erase His Debt?
By Scott Turner
The Facts of the Case: Imagine being in this situation. Bob, the principal of a company you have extended credit to for some time calls to say he wants to buy again, and he requests a credit li . . .  keep reading
Three Critical Things to Watch for to See if You're Dealing With a Bustout
Mohammed, a convicted bustout operator interviewed by Credit Today, offered several ways credit professionals can spot a bustout. First, he said, you need to have your salesman check your customer . . .  keep reading
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