Anti-Fraud Resources Available to Small Businesses

Both the federal government and the states, as well as organizations and companies, provide resources to assist small businesses in the fight against fraud.

In the event that you run up against problems involving financial institutions, debt collection, credit reporting, identity theft, online scams or any of the multitude of ever-proliferating frauds and abuses, there are varied resources that you can turn to for help.

Consumer Protection Assistance Available on Line

The Federal Trade Commission provides an excellent site you can consult for assistance.

In addition, check out your state's consumer protection resources for a helping hand.

Additional consumer protection resources include:

• Better Business Bureau
• National Do Not Call Registry
• The American Bar Association's Safe Shopping website
• The Treasury Department's Fraud Resources website
• The IRS's guide to Suspicious e-Mails and Identity Theft

Case studies you may also find helpful include:

• The Egmont Group has developed a library of case studies covering a wide variety of fraudulent activities.
• The Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network presents a collection of summaries of investigations assisted by Bank Secrecy Act data.
• The Department of Justice maintains a website that compiles information on cases relating to computer crimes and intellectual property.

Investigate Anti-Fraud Software Solutions

Detecting fraud can be especially difficult because so much transactional information is handled by sophisticated software. There may be no "paper trail" because all the information is stored in databases, spreadsheets, online, or other electronic solutions. As a result, numerous companies have developed tools to compile and analyze financial information in an effort to detect and deter fraud. Here is a sampling of some of the available software tools:

• General Fraud Auditing -- ACL Services Ltd. provides several tools for testing and monitoring transactional information.
• Active Data Mining -- InformationActive, Inc. has developed add-on software that adds numerous data analysis features to Microsoft Excel.
• Data Analysis and Benford's Law of Outliers -- Mark J. Nigrini, PhD has also created add-on software for data analysis using Microsoft Excel.
• Audit Testing -- Caseware International Inc. offers software that can read, display, analyze, manipulate, sample or extract from data files from almost any source.
• Health Insurance Audit -- Dr. Will Yancy, CPA has compiled a list of consultants, associations, and software vendors to assist in auditing both public and private health insurance with claims processing and overpayment reviews.
• Anti Money Laundering -- Wolters Kluwer Financial Services has developed a package that automates comprehensive anti-money laundering, Bank Secrecy Act and USA PATRIOT Act compliance.
• Anti e-Commerce Fraud -- FraudLabs has created a suite of web services that track and analyze a wide variety of e-commerce information.

The preceding list is by no means exhaustive, and new solutions are regularly being made available.