text: Fraud Protection - Construction Resource Network
  11 Sep, 2017Financial, Newsletter
  By Kyle Myhre, Wisconsin Bank & Trust
  When comes to the world of banking, most understand that you need money, you go to the bank. Lending is still a major necessity to business. If you use debt to start cash flow cycle and have no debt at the end with money left over, you are in business. Lending will always be a part of how banks will help business, small or large.
  Fairly recently though, focus on protecting and management of funds has been a major focus for banking with their clients. With electronic payments, merchant services, and transactions performed sight unseen, financial information is being passed every second of everyday with most of the time not blinking an eye. How are we as a bank protecting them?
  What business owners, managers, treasurers, etc… fail to realize is that on personal accounts, you have roughly 90 days to dispute any ACH transactions without loss to client, but on business accounts, it is 24 hours.
  Experts on fraud estimate the typical organization loses 5% of its yearly revenues to various types of fraud. If 5% sounds high to you, then consider yourself fortunate — but never make the mistake of presuming your business is immune.
  Many business owners fail to realize how devastating fraud can be, both in lost revenues and related fallout such as reputation, damage, and recovery costs. The estimate of 5% average yearly losses due to fraud comes from survey responses gathered in a 2016 report issued by the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (AFCE).
  Implement "dual controls" for all payment methods and segregate employee duties.
  Ensure employees log out of online banking sessions related to the business when not in use.
  Never store sensitive information on portable devices.
  Be sure that corporate controllers aren't compensated based on the financial results of the business.
  Protecting against check fraud — still the most common type of fraud
  Move to ACH (Automated Clearing House) for payroll, billing, and vendor payments.
  Protecting against electronic payments fraud — avoid malware and phishing
  On computers used for banking, block plugins and pop-ups.
  Change employee passwords frequently.
  Use Positive Pay (an electronic system for comparing cleared items with a file of known issues) and ACH debit filters and blocks to identify suspicious transactions.
  And — same as in preventing check fraud — reconcile your accounts daily online.
  Also, work with your bankers and insurance providers to explore whether a cyber insurance policy, which protects against electronic fraud damages, is a fit for your business. While these policies represent an additional cost, we have personally seen their value in recouping losses after fraud.
  Ask an experienced banker about his or her exposure to fraud cases over the year. What you hear may scare you — and that's a good thing. By understanding the all too real risks to your business, you can help prevent the "typical" average losses of 5% of annual revenues to fraud.