Looking for Ghost Employees in a Retail Environment

Payroll Fraud, specifically “Ghost Employees” can create a significant financial burden on companies. How much? Well, according to Occupational Fraud and Abuse, by Joseph T. Wells, Obsidian Publishing Co. Inc., Ghost Employee Fraud has the highest median loss relative to all payroll fraud schemes at $275,000 per case. If it is happening at your company, it is hurting your company. Unfortunately for those of you in retail, you are one of the most susceptible.

What can be done?

A large retail organization, one of the Fortune 500 with well over 200,000 employees, has retained Vonya Global to search for Fraud in Payroll. Specifically we will be looking for Ghost Employees which (in our methodology) includes Fictitious Ghosts, No-Show Ghosts, Pre-employment Ghosts, Terminated Ghosts, Temporary Ghosts, Family/Friend Ghosts, and Temp Agency Ghosts.

Unlike an investigation, this project is a proactive approach to fraud detection. The company has no evidence or indication that payroll fraud is occurring, however they understand that based on their size and their industry they are susceptible. Our approach takes an inventory of all payroll data and files. Once we have all the information we will segregate it into groups with similar characteristics and through detailed data analysis we will identify anomalies. We are confident that we will identify Ghost Employees and as a result return hundreds of thousands of dollars to the company.

Contact us if you would like to find out more about this project or how we would help you identify fraud in your business.

Fraud Detection Workshop in Chicago October 27 - Afternoon Session Added

Due to popular demand an afternoon session has been added to this workshop. The session will begin at 2:30 pm and conclude by 5:00 pm. Admission is free but registration is required. Please confirm by October 20, 2009.

About the Workshop
Fraud schemes are not complex. Yet, fraud is rarely caught until it is too late. Why? Understanding the fraud scheme is not enough. Identifying the fraud concealment strategy and how it is portrayed in data is the only way to detect fraud. It is essential to learn how to detect fraud before it is too late.

Data mining is the key tool to locate and recognize fraudulent transactions. This workshop will demonstrate:

- How to build a fraud scenario approach
- How to map data fields to fraud scenarios
- How to interpret data for patterns and frequency of fictitious vendors
- How to build the fraud audit plan to include data mining

Please visit the Vonya Global website to register or request additional information.

FINAL REPORT: Strategic Plan for Fraud Prevention, Fraud Detection, and Fraud Deterrence

Vonya Global surveyed Executives and Internal Auditors from private, public, and not-for-profit organizations, spanning many industries to gather opinions on strategic planning for fraud prevention, fraud detection, and fraud deterrence.

"Companies should do more to deter and detect fraud. Costs go far beyond the simple dollars someone steals or gains through materially misstated financial statements. Loss to employees and stockholders can be substantial.”
- Internal Auditor Response


Historically, there have been several studies conducted about fraud and fraud statistics, but none that deal directly with the strategic plans to manage fraud risks. The timing of this study is appropriate due to the heightened sensitivity to fraud due to the economic conditions. It seems more groups, including regulatory bodies, investors, clients, and suppliers are increasingly concerned about the ability to demonstrate effective fraud prevention and fraud detection strategies.

One of the goals of this report is to help organizations begin to evaluate the investment in fraud prevention, fraud detection, and fraud deterrence to determine if there are more effective ways to manage fraud risk.

A copy of the full report can be downloaded by following this link: Fraud Prevention, Fraud Detection, & Fraud Deterrence Report