Employee Fraud Prevention Measures for Large Corporations

The complexity of working in today’s wired world differs markedly from the world just a decade previous. While using the internet has been well-established for over 20 years, the number of fraudsters, schemes, legislation and the skills demanded by employers has grown exponentially. Today, we need to be ever more vigilant of what we do and who we interact with. Today, we need to be in continuous training to stay safe and marketable. Is this the way of the future? 

The Evolution of Fraud: From Spam to Scam Job Postings

Back in the 2000s, there was a time when every day, one’s inbox was filled with spam. These poorly written messages might have hawked scam-related products or services, promoted get-rich schemes, or appealed for help. Regardless of their subject, they were always annoying as, at the very least, they wasted one’s time. And at worse, if accidentally clicked could deliver a trojan that would infect a PC. Every once in a while, somebody would make a mistake and soon all the acquaintance and partner emails would be harvested and targetted.

This deluge brought about new industries to salvage compromised systems, detect and deter spammers and educate staff to not fall prey. Many installed spam blocking software locally; this evolved to corporate sniffers and eventually, services such as MS-Office online themselves were challenging, and flagging suspicious mail.

But the dangers of data compromise have continued to grow in the score of years since. While users grow more computer literate, the bad actors have also been resourceful, finding new ways to compromise us. 

Navigating the Changing Landscape of Hiring: Skills Beyond Word and Excel

This has found its way into the expectations companies place when hiring staff. It is not enough to be well versed using Word and Excel, but one also has to have the equivalent of street smarts that apply to using the internet. 

Surviving requires mastery of several skills in the corporate world. And while not specifically talking about vigilance, being able to develop skills that make one less likely to fall prey to a fraudster is key.

Data Privacy and the Liability Shift: New Legal Requirements for Corporate Employees

Beyond this though, we also need to be savvy to the changing legal requirements that lawmakers place upon companies. In their eagerness to be seen as protecting consumers, sweeping laws protecting anonymity and data privacy have made managing contact data potentially dangerous. Suffering a data breach, or even contacting somebody in an unsolicited manner can lead to fines. 

Feigning ignorance is no defense. Today’s email users are expected to know the protocols, limitations, and expected actions if a breach occurs. And the liability is no longer limited to the corporate entity; recent laws have been amended to target individuals in management all the way up to the C-suite.

Companies whose client data is breached and leaked have mere days to report such. Given that one might not know the extent of the compromise, being forced to admit an unforced error adds pain to misery. It could be that nothing significant was disclosed, and yet, simply knowing that there was a security breach makes it incumbent on the company to admit to such. 

The Rise of Remote Work: Technical Prowess, Higher Pay, and Increased Vulnerability

Corporate employees in the 2020s, therefore, need to be more evolved than their predecessors of the late 1990s and 2000s. But this should translate into higher pay and better working conditions. Especially with the pandemic, many users have had to learn how to work remotely. That means more self-support, the ability to troubleshoot without having an IT guy available in the flesh to reset a machine. 

With more technical prowess, employees are also more attractive to poachers. This too forces companies to be more competitive in compensation. Yet, this too has become an avenue for fraud. Appealing to a person’s vanity is sure to hook a punter. Having our egos stroked causes all of us to drop our guard somewhat. And that is key for fraudsters to wriggle their ways into our circle of trust. Even if we are not thinking of jumping ship, the thought that the grass might be greener (or at least the remuneration larger) can give most of us a moment’s pause.

Recognizing Scam Job Postings: Unveiling the Art of Differentiating Legitimate Opportunities

But here too we all need to be savvy to recognize scam job postings. Such can be something of an art. There are numerous posts of stupendous jobs that, when you dig into them, turn out to be bait and switch. As the saying goes, there’s no such thing as a free lunch, the same can be said about whether a position is only meant to seduce the unsuspecting. 

When one considers though, how fraud has evolved, it seems completely logical that having exhausted the cheap Xanax, passing bank details to an estate lawyer in a far-off land, or picking up mint condition iPhones at a fraction of what they cost locally, fraudsters would move on scam jobs.

But how do you recognize a scam job posting from something legitimate? Consider this article that compares the telltale signs between legitimate jobs and scam data entry jobs. Like earlier frauds, these scams have knock-off links, promise the incredible, and never have real people in the background.

While technology does advance, humanity seems to evolve less rapidly. And as far as fraud is concerned, there is nothing new in the world, only new ways of perpetrating the same old cons. We just need to remain alert and ever skeptical.