One problem that many businesses face is dealing with fraud and scams. Fraudulent transactions can really hurt your business, especially if you are a small business that doesn’t have a lot of money to waste. Here are some of the most common types of business fraud in Florida that you need to be aware of.
Cash fraud
One of the most common ways that people try to scam businesses is through cash fraud. People may come into your business and give you fake money without you realizing it and end up costing your business hundreds if not thousands of dollars. You can try to stop this from happening by training your employees to recognize the difference between real and counterfeit cash, or you could purchase a counterfeit cash detector.
Identity theft
Identity theft is when somebody else claims to be the owner of your business and uses your information to gain access to financial statements, tax identification numbers and bank statements. They may even have access to your business’s bank account and can steal all of your business’s money. There are a few things your business can do to avoid identity theft, including keeping all of your sensitive information in safe places and using many different usernames and passwords for crucial digital information.
Payroll fraud
Payroll fraud is when one of the employees at your business lies or manipulates records in order to get higher pay. This can happen in a couple of ways, such as if an employee says they worked for longer hours or made more sales than they actually did.
Another way that employees might commit fraud is by requesting salary advances and never paying them back. Some employees might even work together with their coworkers to scam the business by having their coworker clock in and clock out for them when they’re not at work. If situations like these end up as legal disputes, a business and commercial litigation attorney may offer assistance.
Business fraud can be devastating to your business, especially if your business is small and you don’t have much capital. It is crucial to put preventative measures in place so that your business won’t lose thousands of dollars to fraudsters and scammers.