Punch to Paycheck

In this latest payroll scam, a woman in Philadelphia reportedly falsely claimed to work between 22 and 32 hours a day. Her employer, Ophthalmic Associates ended up paying her $991,486 more than she was owed. You can read the news story here.

Wow. I wonder what her hourly rate was. How does something like this happen?

Well, as you know, it’s happening everywhere. According to research conducted by the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE), U.S. organizations lose an estimated 7 percent of annual revenues to fraud.

Employees use a number of methods to scam wages from their employers. Commision schemes, salary schemes, and the dreaded ghost worker and buddy punch schemes can slowy drain an employee a few thousand dollars at a time. We found this useful list of schemes to watch out for on  ConstructionBusinessOwner.com. It’s worth a look.

As you might guess, the best way to fight payroll fraud is through prevention, and technology and automated time and attendance structures can go a long way in showing employees that you’re serious about fighting fraud.