Supplier Evaluation

Sending payment with fraud supplier / Know your Suppliers to Avoid Fraud Transactions

The Issue

Whether your buying a candy or to a luxury car, always keep on watch that managing your suppliers is crucial for the success of your business, and also purchasing goods or services could put your business at risk if you don’t take precautions when choosing suppliers.
There are many dishonest companies and fraudsters pretending to be trusted businesses, who will seek to steal your money if there is an opportunity.
For example, it’s estimated that as many as 675,000 businesses have fallen victim to a fake invoice fraud at some point in their trading history.
To ensure you don’t lose out, you need to know how to be fully in control of managing your suppliers.
To spot the risks, it makes good business sense to make sure you really know who you’re dealing with.

The Menace

Again, you should know your suppliers in order for you to dig in and to know them better, and as for this you can easily track and trace if there are any potential threat that can occur anytime.
Fraud in your supply chain can manifest itself in many ways: it could be that a fraudster disguises themselves as a known supplier and deceives you into redirecting a regular payment,
or that a supplier you have used for a number of years starts to intentionally overcharge you possibly with the collusion of one of your employees).
Either way, you could be left out of pocket if you aren’t vigilant when it comes to dealing with your suppliers.

Self Guard

By applying some straightforward filter through questions is also a step to verify that your suppliers are who they say they are and can go a long way towards mitigating the risks.

Example:
– How can you be sure that even your product can serve you with its promise of durability?
– How reliable is your product? is it worth recommending for?
– How can we prove that it will last long? did it undergo through various trials?

This questions will also help you be more connected with your supplier and also to engage with them at its best so both parties are ensured for greater commitment, make sure to always have your checklist for this questions. (you can always add more to your checklist)

Do your research

Getting research is like gold mining or dump mining, this habit can always open up possibilities in regards to any aspect of what you do. In line with this
You can find out a lot about your supplier’s reputation just by searching the internet.

Tips: Search your supplier with keywords such as scam, complaints or fraud.

If you find something suspicious that would make your plane go down at uncontrollable speed, In that case your business sense must decide whether you want to proceed or not at all.

Check your “Supplier” who they say they are

Fraudsters can trick you into losing money by pretending to represent a more established business, so checking details and information are also important to be sure that your ‘supplier’ really is who they say they are.
One common scam is for a fraudster to assume the identity of a known supplier and request that regular payments be diverted into a different bank account.
As simple as this scam sounds, many fall businesses fall victim to it as the fraudsters are very good at building relationships before they strike (sometimes over many months).
An easy measure you can take to avoid falling victim is to establish a single point of contact (SPOC) with each of your regular suppliers.
Do this by contacting your supplier through their verified company switchboard and then run any change requests past your SPOC.

Misunderstanding with supplier so that Leadtime delays / Wrong instructions and guidelines that causes delays

Business sense can always save you if you know how to vibe with it. If you feel something is wrong just tell it on the spot, remember you are the client and you have the power to control things over within your reach.
What if it already happened? Make sure to:
– Inform the supplier that the unit delivered was not on the paper
– Inform immediately the customer about the truth, this shows your transparency and honesty
– Process immediately and fix the concern first before returning back the current issue so you can prioritize what is up front.
– Always make a way to give timely update and to minimize the issue as much as possible.
This shows that your concern and priority is on your clients demand, and if it happens again you are already aware what kind of step you should do next.