Fraud. Customers do it. Businesses do it to vendors and customers. Hackers, cheaters, and thieves do it to individuals and to businesses. Stolen account numbers. Stolen identities. Stolen goods from a front porch. Misrepresented specification fulfillment. The list of ways fraud can be committed goes beyond what most of us can imagine.
Privacy. A lack of privacy for customers in retail and medical situations can lead to stolen information and to fraud. Asking for private information out loud can create a sense of violation of privacy to those in waiting rooms. Consider how well your company or entity is providing privacy to customers when they check in for appointments. See what you can improve to create a greater sense of privacy.
Policies, practices, and procedures. If your business is sending billing information to someone other than the person who made the purchase, ask Why! Also ask whether doing so is a violation of a person’s HIPAA/medical privacy protections under federal law. Review how much information is able to be seen when conducting business, when accepting payments, when sending billing statements. Look carefully at the entire process a customer or vendor experiences to learn how safe and fraud-free your environment really is.
Whenever a customer’s information is used in a way not intended by the customer, that is a form of fraud. Explore whether employees in your organization and customers of yours may be committing fraud. Whether you have a fraud unit or not, this exploration is critical to your ongoing business success.
What practices are in place at your business to prevent fraud? To recover from fraud? To help customers recover from fraud?
And then there is personal fraud – the fraudulent moments when individuals don’t tell the truth or speak outrightly to misrepresent the truth. The times when people pile lie upon lie to cover up a misdeed counts as fraud too.
Authenticity continues to be a theme in personal and professional development work. Being authentic is the opposite of being a fraud-living person.
Look around you and your workplace. What fraud is occurring? What do you choose to do about it?
Ready to review your business practices? Contact Jana: 208-367-1701
As the author of seven books, in seven languages, Jana has been interviewed by U.S., Canadian, and European programs, and magazines. Her presentations have been seen in the United States and India by international audience members.
Workplace – the Blog: Managing the moments of our day-to-day business lives takes work. Together, let’s explore what issues and activities affect us every day (or some days) that we go to work. Together we can find working solutions.