Fraud: Your Questions Answered
Fraud: Your Questions Answered
Fraud: Your Questions Answered
What types of fraud should I be aware of?
Recent fraud trends have a seen a rise in the number of companies being impersonated. These primarily take place where the details of a credit worthy business are used by fraudsters to obtain goods or services. Quite often the impersonators will change the details of the company at Companies House but this isn't always the case. We have seen an increase in the use of accommodation and virtual office addresses being used as delivery addresses in these impersonations.
General fraud levels are also on the rise with long firm fraud still being the most popular type of fraud occurring. This type of fraud occurs when a fraudster sets up various trading relationships with suppliers with the intention of building trust and confidence by making regular prompt payments in the short term. Larger credit increases are then requested by the fraudster once they are confident that they have established a relationship. Once granted the fraudster then uses up all the credit granted and disappears. Fraudsters are also finding other ways to make a business appear credible, for instance by filing accounts that create an impression that the business is extremely profitable and then using this to obtain credit.
What advice could you give me to spot fraud?
There are a number of ways that you can protect your business from being a victim of fraud. We have listed below a few additional checks you might want to carry out when considering new applications for goods or credit in order to stay protected:
Check the delivery address of the goods and see if this makes sense compared to the registered address of the business. Is the delivery address mentioned on the D&B report? Is it linked to the business? Has the business had a recent change in registered address?
Do the contact numbers you have been provided by the business link to them? Have you carried out any independent checks on these numbers? Are you able to check these details on a website for the company?
How confident are you that you are dealing with a genuine employee of the business placing the order? What additional checks can you carry out to verify their identity?
How long has the business been trading? Is it a new start up? Does the turnover of the company make sense for the period of time the business has been trading?
Does the size of the order make sense for size of the business? Does the type of goods/services ordered make sense for the line of business?
Why not ask D&B's Credit Communities team about their fraud database? This gives you access to a searchable database on alerts issued on potentially high risk businesses.
Are there ways that I can share intelligence with my industry peers?
If you have a responsibility for credit control or credit management, being a member of D&B's Credit Communities will give you the opportunity to share market knowledge and trading experiences with other partners, all supported by the range of D&B Risk Management Solutions to ensure that you reduce your exposure to risk and maximise sales.
D&B Credit Communities is a shared information network', available via the Internet, that gives you 24 hour access to specialist credit and industry data about the businesses you are selling to. D&B Credit Communities deliver unique industry intelligence, allowing you to minimise risks and maximise opportunities.
Information zones give live data ranging from:
Payment Defaults reported daily
Interactive Trade Experiences exchanged on-line
Unique fraud detection database and e-mail alerts
Thousands of business information reports, with the most up to date credit and market intelligence
D&B's e-Portfolio risk management solution.
How can D&B help my company minimise loss to fraud?
Through sharing business intelligence on fraud, D&B's Credit Communities team saved our customers over 7.5 million in 2009.
The Credit Communities team send alert mails to members whenever we identify potentially high-risk business. Members who are suspicious of an approach advise the team as quickly as possible to enable us to conduct an investigation and inform other community members as quickly as possible.
If you would like more information on how D&B is helping to fight fraud, or if you believe your organisation may have been affected, please e-mail us at cmic@dnb.com or call D&B's Credit Communities team on 01628 492500.
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