{"id":3486,"date":"2016-11-02T11:51:55","date_gmt":"2016-11-02T01:51:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wiseworkplacetraining.com.au\/2021\/09\/11\/what-are-some-of-the-common-causes-of-workplace-fraud\/"},"modified":"2016-11-02T11:51:55","modified_gmt":"2016-11-02T01:51:55","slug":"what-are-some-of-the-common-causes-of-workplace-fraud","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wiseworkplace.com.au\/2016\/11\/what-are-some-of-the-common-causes-of-workplace-fraud\/","title":{"rendered":"What are Some of the Common Causes of Workplace Fraud?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/wiseworkplace.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/workplace-fraud.png\" alt=\"\" \/><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>When it comes to workplace fraud, it can be tempting to boil down the cause into simplistic statements, such as saying the fraudster was just \u201cgreedy and dishonest.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>But of course things are generally not quite that simple, and just as plane crashes usually require at least two or three things to go wrong, in most cases of fraud, there needs to be a number of factors involved for it to occur.<br \/>\nIt\u2019s widely considered that there are three main factors for fraud \u2013 motivation, opportunity, and lack of surveillance.<\/div>\n<h3>1. Common motivation factors<\/h3>\n<div>\n<p>There are a number of possible motivations for committing fraud. These include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span>Financial pressures: A person might commit fraud due to financial difficulties. This can be a result of unfortunate circumstances, such as in the case of a relationship breakdown, or more strongly self-inflicted, from living a lavish lifestyle beyond their means or getting into serious gambling debt.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span>Peer pressure: A person might be pressured to collaborate in a fraud at work, and go along with it to be accepted in the \u2018in group\u2019 or to avoid harassment.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span>Personality traits: According to the Australian Institute of Criminology (AIC), certain personality types may be more inclined towards committing fraud \u2013 such as opportunists, narcissists, or people who like to lord it over or manipulate other people, and who enjoy the challenge of beating the system and fooling others.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span>Disgruntlement: In some cases, resentment can be involved \u2013 such as where an employee feels overlooked for a promotion or pay increase they feel they deserved, or where they feel victimised or treated unfairly (whether real or imagined).\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Rationalisation can also play a part, with a perpetrator justifying their actions to alleviate guilt. This might include thinking \u201cI deserve it\u201d or \u201cit\u2019s not hurting anyone\u201d or \u201cthe company can afford it and won\u2019t even notice the loss.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<h3>2. Opportunity<\/h3>\n<div>Of course fraud can\u2019t happen if the opportunity to commit it isn\u2019t there! Examples might include where a worker is put in charge of company assets such as cash or supplies, or where they are given a company credit card to use without rigorous oversight. The opportunity for fraud might come along in small chunks \u2013 where the perpetrator steals cash just a bit at a time to avoid detection, or in one big hit. In some instances, the fraudster may not have set out to commit crime, but becomes tempted when the opportunity pops up.<\/div>\n<h3>3. Lack of surveillance<\/h3>\n<div>Lax internal controls increase the opportunity for fraud to be committed. For instance, where one person is given authority to process and make payments without a second authoriser and so on.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>This is where clear separation of duties is required, as well as strong internal controls, and other safeguards such as regular internal and external audits.<\/div>\n<h3>Detecting fraud<\/h3>\n<div>\n<p>Since fraud is all about secrecy and deception, it is not always easy to uncover. Surprise audits, anonymous hotlines, and continual monitoring can help in detecting fraud. At Wise, we offer a whistleblower hotline service that can help organisations to detect fraud. Get in contact with us for more details.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n<p class=\"wpss_copy\">Content retrieved from: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.wiseworkplace.com.au\/_blog\/WISE_Blog\/post\/what-are-some-of-the-common-causes-of-workplace-fraud\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">http:\/\/www.wiseworkplace.com.au\/_blog\/WISE_Blog\/post\/what-are-some-of-the-common-causes-of-workplace-fraud\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When it comes to workplace fraud, it can be tempting to boil down the cause into simplistic statements, such as saying the fraudster was just \u201cgreedy and dishonest.\u201d But of course things are generally not quite that simple, and just as plane crashes usually require at least two or three things to go wrong, in [&#8230;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[208,98,64,99,52,275,182],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wiseworkplace.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3486"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wiseworkplace.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wiseworkplace.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wiseworkplace.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wiseworkplace.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3486"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.wiseworkplace.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3486\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wiseworkplace.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wiseworkplace.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wiseworkplace.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}