Beware the Dishonest Employee

While defending yourself against cheating buyers, don’t lose sight of the fact that a dishonest employee may be trying to outflank you. Also note that employees stealing from your customers can sometimes be more problematic than if they steal from you because they harm your reputation. Here are a few scams you should be alert for:

• Checks or electronic transfers to non-existent vendors or employee personal accounts
  
• Taking checks that are not receivables, pocketing cash from deposits in the amount of the checks and creating a new deposit slip that balances with the original deposit


• Encouraging car rental customers to pay cash and then destroying rental papers


• Employees conspiring to engage in time card fraud


• Employees transferring funds from the dealer's account into their own, earning interest for most of a month and then transferring the original funds back into the dealer's account by the end of each month


• Employee of a dealership using cash accounting for financial participation income cashes checks at the dealer's cashier office and pockets the money


• Employees give unauthorized parts discounts to friends and/or family


• Employees “forget” to return customer's credit card, selling it or giving it to a friend