There are many ways people steal money from the companies they work for without being noticed. We are going to discuss the tricks, especially politicians and accountants use to embezzle money from their employers
Fake refund
This involves faking a refund for a customer that never existed. Most accountants actually factor this into the books of accounts.
Tender
Many politicians and senior government employees steal money through tenders. This happens when the employee, who is influential, puts condition on a company, that unless they give a kick back, the tender won’t be awarded to them.
In most cases tenders are overpriced, where the extra cash is embezzled.
Travelling and trips
People steal from organizations through several fake trips. In most cases, accountants and employees collude to have fake trips for them to embezzle funds.
Overpricing items
Guys who procure items always overprice items. This is one way accountants steal from companies. If for instance a mobile phone costs $100, the accountant will quote $200 and he pockets $100.
Fake receipts
Companies always require you to produce a receipt whenever you travel or perform a duty that involves spending. Most people find loopholes here and end up colluding with Accountants to have fake receipts.
Kickbacks
Kickbacks are common especially in Africa.CFO, accountants, procurement officers and CEO of most companies receive kickbacks from people who need favours.
Lapping.
In a lapping scam, a receivables clerk might steal a $1,000 cash payment made by customer A. To avoid arousing suspicion, they steal $1,000 from a $2,000 payment made by customer B a few days later and use that to “pay” customer A’s bill. The process continues and the employee makes away with increasingly larger amounts of money, involving more and more accounts.
Check Kiting.
Check kiting takes advantage of the time period between deposit of a check and collection of funds. The check kiter steals money from the company and deposits the money in an account. He then writes checks back and forth between two bank accounts, his own and that of the business, each time escalating the amount of the check. In effect, the money exists in two accounts at the same time.
Payroll Fraud.
Enterprising embezzler sometimes add relatives or fictitious individuals to the company payroll and thus enjoy several salary checks each week instead of one.
Fake Loans
Some employees, especially those who are planning to leave accompany, take fake loans without the employer’s knowledge, they then disappear.
Undercharging.
These habits is common among waiters in pubs and hotels.They undercharge clients and pocket the balance. Sometimes they pocket the full amount and allow the customer to leave without paying at the counter.
Fictitious Bad Debt.
After depositing a check from a customer in his or her personal account, the embezzler/accountant may record the receivable as bad debt, as if it had never been paid.
Stealing office supplies
Have you noticed there are people who are fond of stealing office supplies? Some of them have shops elsewhere where they stock the stolen goods.
Ghost workers
Another common way of stealing is to have ghost workers in the payroll. This mostly happens in public offices where employees are in thousands.
If you are the employer and notice these happenings, fire your employees.