Fraud Awareness

We have to undergo elearning on fraud awareness. We do not need the experts to tell us that fraud stems from greed. The fraud triangle model which says that for fraud to occur, three elements have to be present ie pressure, opportunity and rationalisation.

Pressure
It is sometimes labelled as motive or incentive that leads a fraudster into engaging into misconduct. Generally the factors are related to financial needs. There are various reasons that push the fraudster into commmitting fraud such as job insecurity, difficult economic environment and peer pressure.

Opportunity
This often arises from the organisation's poor internal controls. The fraudster will capitalize on the weak management and lack of internal controls. In order to circumvent this, organisations should tighten their proceseses and procedures ie to plug any loopholes if any

Rationalisation
The perpetrators are able to rationalise their actions by convincing themselves that they are underpaid and they are only taking what is due to them. The perpetrators are just finding justification for their action.

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Greed

There was a report on the number of people who have fallen prey to scratch and win scams that have been escalating since 2006. People have been duped by such scams where victims were told they had won luxury items such as cars.

Is it greed that the perpetrators are capitalizing on? Greed has been defined as an excessive desire to possess wealth or goods. We sometimes are not able to visualise the situation and we are blaming the victims for so easily taken in by such scams. Let me relate to you one incidence. I was at the LRT when I was approached by a guy who gave me a card to scratch. I was advised that there were attractive prizes to be won. At that spur of moment, I was so pressurized that I wanted to scratch the card and also to get him off my back. However, I was late for an appointment and I told the guy that he could have the card and to retain the prizes for his safekeeping in the event there was any winning. I just walked away and I was totally amazed when the guy started to raise his voice. Was there excellent customer service as the customer should have been given the liberty of choice. Looking back now, I was thankful I did not become a victim of the scam.

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Keep customers coming back

Take a moment and reflect of any organisation, restaurant or company to which you feel absolutely loyal. In other words, this is the place you choose to go even though you may have other choices. Think about it why you feel loyal to a particular organisation.

One way to better understand customer loyality is to consider that every interaction you have with anyone has two levels - the business level and the customer's level. For example how do you feel when a doctor treats you only on a business level without understanding your immediate requirements. In the same token when a doctor treats you on a more human level, how do you feel?

Let me relate to you one incidence of good customer service. I together with my group of friends were at the cafe with the objective of surfing the net. We were disappointed when we could not locate the plug point. The Management has in fact utilised the plug point for other purposes. My friend knows the supervisor at the cafe outlet personally and she inquired as to the availability of the plug point. She was advised that there is only 1 plug point which is located at the entrance. At that juncture of time, the place was occupied. This supervisor has gone the extra mile by advising my friend that he would reserve the place once it was vacant. We went on to order our drinks. My friend and I ordered honey lemon drinks and my friend requested the supervisor to add more honey. Guess what, we have a separate top up of honey. At one point of time, the Supervisor even offered to let us charge our battery at his cashier's counter.

Here was an opportunity for the Supervisor to make a difference by deliverying quality work in a caring way at each `moment of truth' with us as customers.

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Humiliation

Humiliation is the feeling of being put down, made to feel less than one feels oneself to be. It can be brought about through bullying, intimidation, physical or mental mistreatment or by embarrassment.

Feeling of humiliation can be turned inward which result in apathy and depression and when turned outward can give rise to paranoia and fantasies of revenge. Not all acts of humiliation are intentional. They can be committed quite accidentally. Sometimes can arise simply because of misunderstanding.

I was humiliated in front of a crowd of people on 11 August 2010. I felt I have nowhere to turn to and at that juncture of time, I wanted just to walk away. However, I have to maintain my cool and took things in my own stride. Deep down inside me, I felt the fury and kept telling myself why I have had to go through such an ordeal when in the first place, I have done my level best to preempt the other party of the consequences. Given a chance, I would have prefer the choice of action which I have taken steps to inform. The other party did not adhere to it resulting in the public humiliation which should not be called for in the first place. I hope I will not have to go through such an unpleasant situation, moving forward.

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