February 16, 2010 - 5:54am
A quick-thinking Safeway clerk recognized the red flags of fraud and saved a Vancouver Island grandmother from a $4,600 scam.
“Unfortunately, not everyone understands the signs of fraud, and that’s why news about scams that succeed are all too common,” said Vanessa Oltmann of Vancouver Island University’s (VIU) Faculty of Management.
In an effort to increase public awareness, VIU’s new Fraud & Ethics Research & Education Centre (FEREC) – headed by Oltmann – will co-host a public workshop with the Greater Nanaimo Chamber of Commerce called The Many Faces of Fraud – Managing your Fraud Risk at VIU’s Nanaimo campus March 4.
“Fraud is everyone’s responsibility and every manager, employee and investor has a role in fraud prevention,” said Oltmann, Certified Forensic Investigator and Coordinator of FEREC.
According to Oltmann, half of all businesses will probably experience fraud in any given year. Fraud is a global and local problem, with estimates of five to seven percent of business revenues falling victim to fraud each year. “However, most fraud is preventable. An understanding of fraud prevention strategies is an essential survival tool for business professionals and managers.”
At the March 4 workshop, four of Canada’s top fraud prevention and detection experts will present seminars on how to recognize fraud and build a fraud-fighting toolkit. They will discuss counterfeit currency detection, protecting yourself and your organization from identity theft and credit card fraud, recognizing and dealing with fraud, and why money-laundering poses a risk to your organization.
“Attendees will learn the tools to significantly reduce their organization’s risk of fraud,” said Oltmann. “The workshop will appeal to business owners and managers at every level and in every size of organization, professionals, employees in positions or businesses particularly sensitive to fraud, and others.”
Workshop presenters include two forensic accountants with a combined total of 55 years policing and forensic accounting experience, a Bank of Canada Senior Currency Analyst, RCMP Commercial Crimes investigators, and former MP Roy Cullen who was one of the architects of Canada’s anti-money laundering legislation and is currently Director of the Global Organization of Parlaimentarians against Corruption (GOPAC) and team leader of the Anti-Money Laundering Global Task Force.
VIU Master of Business Administration (MBA) intern Silky Malhotra is helping to manage the workshop event. She is one of three MBA interns working on a variety of fraud-related research projects with FEREC this year.
FEREC, established at VIU last May, is conducting research on the fraud exposure of small businesses on Vancouver Island. Past fraud research has focused on large organizations and large businesses.
“We know that small businesses have most of the same fraud risks as larger businesses, and we have anecdotal evidence of the fraud issues faced by small businesses,” said Oltmann. “We expect that research will also show unique challenges and patterns in fraud against small businesses, and we hope the results of that research will enable us to more effectively advise this group on low-cost prevention strategies. The Nanaimo area is one of the best places in Canada to study small business, because Nanaimo has the highest number of small businesses per capita in British Columbia.”
Other projects underway include development of a database of fraud cases and source documents which can be used by researchers, primary research and applied secondary research in Fraud and Ethics, and cases for academic and professional use. Research topics will include fraud investigation, bribery, corruption, inter-cultural ethics, international fraud, financial sector fraud, fraud prevention, plus other aspects of the subject.
The Many Faces of Fraud – Managing your Fraud Risk workshop runs March 4 from 8:45 am to 4 pm at VIU’s Nanaimo campus, Bldg. 250, Room 125. Cost is $109, which includes coffee breaks and lunch. To register online go to www.viu.ca/ccs/registration.asp or call 866-760-2005
Tags: In the Community
