A growing number of daily business operations are now completed online. And because fraud attacks can come from an ever-increasing number of sources, organizations must establish multiple layers of security features. Take a look below at the various ways fraud can happen to your business, and then evaluate the tools that can help keep you safe.

Your employees are the lifeblood of your business, but they also have the power to harm it for their own gain. Internal fraud can happen through various methods, but there are several ways you can help protect your business.

The Schemes

• Check fraud - An employee may alter or forge checks and make them payable to themselves.
• Outright fraud - The theft of petty cash or cash from bank deposits.
• False invoicing and billing - Invoices can either be created for work that never happened or real invoices can be altered with a larger amount.
• Payroll Fraud - False checks or electronic payments may be altered to increase the employee's salary or divert funds to a family member.

How Can You Help Protect Your Business?

• Separate duties for reconciling accounts and making payments. 
• Positive Pay services allow your company to view all incoming checks and ACH transactions and return any fraudulent transactions. 
• Be sure to set up dual controls for approving account clearings and payroll. Our online banking systems allow for dual approvers for ACH and wire payments. Even if you have Positive Pay services, setting up dual controls to approve all checks and ACH's will further reduce your risk of an employee approving their own fraudulent payment.

Email is an essential communication tool of businesses today. It's great for organizations of any size to communicate internally, as well as with business partners and clients. However, according to the FBI, email was also used to embezzle over $2.3 billion between October 2013 and February 2016.

How it Works

Cyber criminals can use email to commit fraud by:

• Creating a fake email address to look like a real address from a real vendor, requesting a payment to be sent to an alternate account. They may even appear to be from a company executive, giving it more authority.
• Hacking an employee's email and using it to send a legitimate-looking invoice with the payment directed to the hacker's account.

How Can You Help Protect Your Business?

• Establish call-back procedures when receiving payment instructions via email. Use a phone number that you have on file, not a number from the correspondence.
• Use dual controls when sending payments; one employee to create the payment, and a second to verify the payment details and approve it. 

You've put in a lot of time and effort growing your business and keeping its bottom line healthy. Don't let thieves and fraudsters steal what you've worked so hard to earn. Fraud has gone high-tech, and so should you. Download IBM^® Trusteer Rapport^® Software[cite::111::cite] as an added layer of protection for your login credentials. Fraud prevention services from Nevada State Bank can help protect your company.

To help minimize your risks of fraud, call 800.693.7695, email nsbtreasurymgmt@nsbank.com or contact your Relationship Manager today.