Someone speaks up
- The clerksees itWages to nobodyTell?
Picture a payroll clerk who notices that a manager is paying wages to a person who does not exist. The three lines did not catch it. The audit did not catch it. The clerk did, by sitting next to it. Now she has a choice, and what she does next depends on what happens to people who tell.
- A tip43 in 100 frauds found, 2024Internal audit14 in 100 frauds found, 2024Managers' checks13 in 100 frauds found, 2024
A body that studies fraud counts how each case was found, in nearly two thousand cases from 138 countries. In its 2024 count, over four in ten were caught by a tip. The audit team caught about one in seven, managers' own checks about one in eight. And more than half the tips came from the company's own staff.
- A tip43 in 100, 2024Internal audit14 in 100, 2024Managers' checks13 in 100, 2024
Of 100 frauds found, how were most of them found?
By a tip, usually from the company's own staff.
Right. Forty-three in a hundred, three times what the audit team found. The most common way wrongdoing is found is somebody saying so.By the watcher.
Not yet. The watcher is outside the building. It finds out when a tip reaches it, which is the point of the next step.By the audit team.
Not yet. Fourteen in a hundred. Audit looks once a year at a sample; a tip comes from someone who sat next to it every day. - Worker sees itTells the company or a watcherProtected from being sacked for it
So the law protects the teller. In the UK, under a law passed in 1998, a worker who reports wrongdoing in the public interest cannot lawfully be sacked or punished for it. People call it whistleblowing. The worker can tell the employer, or one of the watchers on a list the government keeps, and either way the protection holds.
Set what happened to the last person who spoke up, and whether there is a way to tell without giving your name. See how many of 100 staff who see something would report it. Made up to show the shape.
70 of 100
of 100 who would tell
The last person who told was: Thanked · Anonymous line: No anonymous line
Last teller thanked, no anonymous line: 70 of 100 would report what they saw.
80 of 100
of 100 who would tell
The last person who told was: Thanked · Anonymous line: An anonymous line
Last teller thanked, an anonymous line: 80 of 100 would report what they saw.
30 of 100
of 100 who would tell
The last person who told was: Ignored · Anonymous line: No anonymous line
Last teller ignored, no anonymous line: 30 of 100 would report what they saw.
50 of 100
of 100 who would tell
The last person who told was: Ignored · Anonymous line: An anonymous line
Last teller ignored, an anonymous line: 50 of 100 would report what they saw.
5 of 100
of 100 who would tell
The last person who told was: Punished · Anonymous line: No anonymous line
Last teller punished, no anonymous line: 5 of 100 would report what they saw.
25 of 100
of 100 who would tell
The last person who told was: Punished · Anonymous line: An anonymous line
Last teller punished, an anonymous line: 25 of 100 would report what they saw.
What matters more?
The anonymous line. People only tell when they cannot be found.
Not yet. The line lifts every row, and punished-with-a-line is 25 while thanked-without is 70. The story about the last teller does more than the hiding place.Neither. People who see fraud always report it.
Not yet. In the punished row 5 in 100 did. Each punished teller teaches the next hundred to say nothing.What happened to the last person. A thank-you with no anonymous line beats an anonymous line after the last teller was punished.
Right. Thanked with no line: 70. Punished with a line: 25. The story staff tell each other about the last teller is the bigger lever, and it is told whether or not the company wants it told.Move both controls.
- The fine£642 thousandPay cut£500 thousand
In 2016 the boss of Barclays got an anonymous letter with claims about a colleague he had hired. Instead of leaving it to the people whose job that was, he tried to find the writer. In 2018 the watchers fined him £642,430 and the bank cut £500,000 from his pay. The claims were never the point; hunting the writer was.
The fraud body also estimates how much of a company's yearly sales is lost to fraud by its own people. How much?
Pick one. Nothing is scored.
- Lost to fraud5 in 100 of sales, estimated · 5%
- The rest95 in 100 of sales, estimated · 95%
About 5 in 100.It is the fraud examiners' own estimate, not a count, and the body says so. Fraud is rare per person and common per company, and a typical case runs for about a year before anyone finds it.The clerk's manager is the one paying the ghost. Tap where the law says she can also go.
Tap the part of the picture that answers it.
The clerkHer employerA watcher on the listA watcher on the list
Right. The law names watchers a worker may go to instead of the employer, for exactly the case where the employer is the problem. The protection holds either way.The clerk
Not yet. She is the one who saw it. The question is where the report goes, and she cannot report to herself.Her employer
Not yet. She can tell her employer, and her employer is her manager, who is paying the ghost. That is why the law gives her a second door.- Yesterday's chickentoday's dateThe cheftold the ownerThe councila watcher
A chef sees the restaurant relabelling yesterday's chicken with today's date. He tells the owner, who says everyone does it, and if he tells the council he is out. From this lesson?
Nothing protects him. He is only a chef.
Not yet. The law covers workers, not ranks. The clerk and the chef are the same case.He must stay quiet. He told the owner, and that was his duty.
Not yet. Telling the employer is one door. The law names the watcher as a second, precisely for the case where the employer is the problem.He can tell the council, and the law says sacking him for it is unlawful. The owner's threat is what keeps the other staff quiet.
Right. The council is a watcher, and the owner's threat is the balance step's punished row, before anyone has told. The law exists for the chef whose employer is the problem.
Lesson complete
Most wrongdoing is found by someone telling, and the law protects the teller so they can.