Work From Home Fraud
About 9 years ago, when I was running my startup in the US, I recruited a marketing associate from India. My friends in India cautioned me that a lot of employees in India were two-timing their employers overseas and in India. They would work for two and sometimes, more companies and do justice to neither but draw a full salary from both.
The COVID Pandemic has created a whole new work-from-home era and with it comes the era of WFH frauds. People who are working for multiple employers, taking advantage of the lack of monitoring to take everyone for a ride. Sounds incredulous, right? Read on
10 Jobs and a $1.5 Million Annual Compensation
Dreyfan seems like an exceptional coder. A review of his comments and other digital tracks seems to suggest that he is someone concerned about the ethical side of things. Yet, his boast above suggests that he does not mind taking advantage of things when presented with an opportunity.
Some would argue that there is nothing wrong with this as long as the employers are getting their due. Some would argue that there may be a transgression of contractual obligations and agreements. Be that as it may, our problem is not with Dreyfan or the opportunity that he is taking advantage of.
Our problem is that of Work From Home being turned into a fraudulent method to deceive employers. As the second follow-up post suggests, employees who are fraudulent are taking advantage of lax systems and lack of oversight mechanisms. Even more galling is the use of "connection problems" and other usual excuses.
How to protect your organization from Work From Home Fraud
Now that we have understood the modus operandi, we need certain rules and methods to prevent such frauds and scams from happening. At the suggestion of an organization that uses Vouch as part of a system to prevent this, here is what those measures would look like:
1. Establishment of contracts that outline payment requirements
2. Clear guidelines that mandate certain "must do" things such as hourly monitoring, video on and other presence mechanisms. Onus to be on the employee that they complied with all necessary requirements.
3. Clear definition of outcomes if employer wants outcome based management only. Monitoring and compliance can be built into the transaction with the help of the payment platform
4. Use of digital escrow mechanisms to put payment at risk to prevent multi employment frauds
5. Lastly, clawback clauses that ensure both get their due's worth
This is a borderline case. You can entrust an external entity such as Vouch to enable a transaction and monitoring system such as this. When in doubt, use a Digital Escrow.
How does Digital Escrow save you from online frauds?
Safety is not just about protecting your credit or debit card number. It's about having control of your money till you've delivered the product or service you contracted to!
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Note: This is a good-faith initiative to educate the world about how to avoid frauds like these. Do you have a fraud that you would like to report? Please write to us at letstalk@iamvouched.com
