Frauds in the Workplace

Frauds with warehouse operations, accounting of goods or logistics are some of the most popular ones in the retail and service sectors. They cost companies more than a third of all lost trades, yet very often go unnoticed. Some of the most widespread fraud schemes are the following:

• A worker at the warehouse registers fewer goods than they accept and pocket the difference.

• A warehouse worker writes off a part of quality products as defective and steals them.

• A warehouse worker writes off a part of quality products as defective and steals them.

  They share the difference between the real and the inflated price.

We invited Katherine, the owner of a beauty salon chain, to try our solution and see how it can benefit her growing business. Like the majority of business owners, Katherine used video surveillance systems in her salons. But she was looking for ways to monitor her employees closer, especially administrators, accountants and salon managers.

The company had already been using CleverControl for a year to assess the quality of customer service and maintain work discipline. The managers used the gathered reports mainly to track the beginning and end of the workday and view screenshots to see how employees work and how they communicate with customers.

CleverControl allowed Katherine to control the quality of customer service. She could read emails and website chat logs with clients. "I found out a peculiar habit of one of the administrators," Katherine says. When the administrator had to deal with a client's negative attitude in the chat and started losing patience, she typed a very emotional and even rude reply but did not send it. Then she deleted the first reply and wrote a polite and professional one. "I guess it helps her to vent her emotions," Katherine admits. "But an accidental touch of the finger can ruin our reputation, so I warned the administrator about the unacceptability of such behaviour."

Monitoring with CleverControl also revealed a much more serious problem. Katherine had a vague suspicion that the manager of one of the salons was stealing care products. The documents and the stock were always in order during the inventory, and the salon owner had no proof of theft.

CleverControl helped Katherine to reveal the following fraud scheme. For example, the supplier sent the invoice for ten jars of moisturizing cream to Katherine's accountant. After receiving the payment, the supplier delivered the order to the salon, but the salon manager registered only nine jars in the accounting program and stole the tenth. She committed these frauds regularly with other premium care products. The swindle was revealed when Katherine compared screenshots and keylogs from the manager's computer with the supplier's invoices. The manager also boasted in chats with her friends that she had never bought a single bottle of shampoo since she started working in the salon. Screenshots of these chats were also captured by CleverControl on her work computer. Katherine fired the manager and penalized the accountant for negligence. The accountant was responsible for comparing the number of ordered, delivered and registered supplies, but she never did it.

CleverControl exceeded my expectations," Katherine admits. "It is very user-friendly and really records everything my workers do on their computers. Without it, I might never get proof of the manager's fraud. It also indicated some weak points in work that needed improvement.

• Keylogging

  This feature showed the cases of inappropriate communication with clients and provided proof of the manager's fraud.
• Screenshots and screen recording

  These logs served as additional proof of the manager's fraud.
• Visualizzazione in diretta

  Live stream of the employees' screens allowed Katherine more control over the workprocess.