TREASURY UPDATE

The following scam, and ones just like it, targets individuals and not businesses. Nonetheless, one of Strategic Treasurer's employees was in the bank the other day overhearing (not intentionally mind you, the person was upset and quite loud) the complaint of someone scammed with a method similar to this one. They were trying to get their money back.  It is doubtful they will get their money back – unless the scammers had to attend a family emergency and forgot to clear everything out.

The basic process is:

• Sign people up to be a 'mystery shopper'
• Send them a fake check for, in this example, $3,400
• Have them deposit it
• Have them send $3,000 of real money right away…to find out if there are problems with the money transfer system
• Find out the check bounced
• Realize the $400 of easy money was really $3,000 of a real loss

Why would anyone trust an anonymous person with $3,400? Or pay them $400 for a rather simple task?

This clearly sounds too easy to be true. Unfortunately, this preys on many people in difficult situations.

We pass this on simply as a warning to friends and family.

———————————————————————————————————————
Text from a scam email. The last names have been altered in case they used someone's real name
———————————————————————————————————————

From: Annie Y******

To: undisclosed-recipients:;

Sent: May 5, 2009 7:53 AM

Subject: Attention!

 

FIRST ASSIGNMENT ON MYSTERY SHOPPER !!!

Shopper's Guide wants you to run a survey on two  prominent companies in

your area.

 

The 1st is a Western Union   Location

The 2nd a Restaurant

 

There have been reports about laps in the services of
their Management and

some of their staffs, Their complains   are based on reports which

their customers forwarded anonymously and Phone  calls which were also made

to the head office.

 

The Western union location was reported for evaluation
for the

following reasons:

I)    Customers
have reported their money missing

ii) Slow services

iii)  Unbalanced
transfer charges

 

The 2nd company was reported to be   rendering

(I) Poor services

(ii) Rudeness to customers

(iii) Excess charge

(iii) Late opening time and Closing before time.

 

Your Secret Evaluation would be

1) To make a transfer of funds from this western union
location to our

Mystery shopper, And the funds would be picked up by
another mystery shopper

at another location where a customer reported her funds
missing.

 

2) You would have to record the time at which you go to
the location and how

many minutes it took you to get service.

 

3) You would be sent a check/Money order which would
cover your payment of

$3000 and also for the duty. As soon as you receive the
check/money order,

you should cash in at your bank, and deduct your $400, and
use the rest of

the money for the services.

 

4) Upon receiving the funds, the locations address would
be forwarded to

you, and also the Name and address of whom the Mystery
shoppers

transfer would be made to. You would have to keep a
comprehensive report on

every activity you carry out.

 

5) You would also provide me with the name of the cashier
that attended to

you. So if you think you can take these Job get back to
Us

with these Full Information below .

 

First name……………….Last
name……………….Address

Line……………City…………………….State…………………..

.Zip/Postal code…………..

Age……………………..Marital

Status……………Nationality………………Occupation…………….

…..Home phone……………….Cell
phone……………….

ID or Reference …………….Email Address  ……………

 

Please send me a reply so that the check/Money order sent
out to you ASAP

 

Yours  Sincerely

 

Allens W***********

Stockton on Tees TS16 0RW

Payroll often becomes the victim of fraud from within.  Due to the sensitivity of the data, very few people have access to timekeeping and salary systems.  Segregation of duties and a system enforced control process are often lacking – leaving the organization severely exposed.

"We trust our Payroll administrator" are famous last words.  "Trust but verify (some key activities)" as a former President used to say (emphasis and additional text added).  Here are a few examples of Payroll Fraud:

1. Departed Employee.  Keep paying them for a few pay cycles – change the address or banking information, then stop it before anyone notices.

2. Fictitious Employee.  Payroll knows who checks their budget figures and who doesn’t.  If there are no clear segregation of duties controlled systematically, setting up a fictitious employee can add some additional funds to the perpetrator’s coffer. (stub distribution, direct deposit each have different characteristics).

3. Rate Changes.  If the payroll information (changes) are reviewed, it may be easy to give oneself a raise without detection.

Some control steps you’ll want to consider:

1. Ensure KEY changes are systematically approved by a different person.  These include: Address, Banking Information, New Employees and Rate Changes.
2. If you can’t have those KEY changes systematically approved before they happen, then make sure change reports are created and distributed to appropriate parties – so the quality will be high and the fraud will be low.
3. Employees that leave must be removed- their Payroll records need to be rapidly updated so extra pay doesn’t inadvertently leave the building.