Expert: Protect yourself from fraud

With fraud on the increase, businesses and individuals must be educated on how to recognise and avoid such instances.

Director of CreditInfo Barbados, Grady Clarke, made this clear while speaking to the media yesterday at Accra Beach Hotel where his organisation was hosting a seminar on effective credit management and debt recovery.

“It is important to do enhanced due diligence. The fraudsters are using technology to create fake IDs to create companies, job letters and so on. So while in days gone by if you got a job letter you could almost count on its authenticity, but today you have to verify the information that you receive because it could be fraudulent and prevention is better than cure,” he stressed.

Clarke insisted that businesses must know how to prevent opportunities for fraudsters to get a hand into their earnings, noting that with the economy going through tough times “fraudsters would be out in full force to feed their families.

“Some do it for other reasons – to buy name brand, to live a luxury life – but in a tough economy, the incidents of fraud tend to rise so it is even more important today to check that you know who you are doing business with, that you know your customers, that you verify information that you obtain to prevent yourself from being caught,” he added.

Thanking the Criminal Investigations Division of the Royal Barbados Police Force for conducting a programme in fraud awareness at the seminar, Clarke presented the officers with a cheque for the Police Welfare Fund, while appealing to business houses to do the same. (JMB)