Reporter’s Notebook

Here’s a statistic you’re not going to like – an estimated three in 10 workers are stealing from their employers.

The number came from Sam Nigro, founder of Vancouver-based Loss Prevention Group, which has helped companies handle inside theft and fraud for 20 years.

I hate to think the worst of 30 percent of the workforce, but numbers from a 2008 report by the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners made the situation even clearer. Fraud and theft cause businesses, government organizations and nonprofits lose 7 percent of their revenue each year in the United States.

What surprised me was the way that these scams go down:
• Of the perpetrators in the study, 35 percent were ages 41 to 50. Nineteen percent were ages 51 to 60. Employees younger than 26 were involved in 4 percent of the cases.
• Employees with bigger paychecks were involved with bigger scams, and fraud occurred most among accounting and executive or management staff.
• Most scams weren’t discovered through audits and internal controls. Instead, tips from insiders or observers had a 46 percent detection rate.

For more on employee theft and tips on how to prevent it, check out Friday’s VBJ.

- Charity Thompson
cthompson@vbjusa.com