Liars, con artists, and employment scammers are about to have their cover blown in a live webinar hosted by professional background screening expert Kevin Connell. In this free interactive webinar, Connell will share real stories of outrageous resume lies and reveal insider secrets of employment scam artists.

TAMPA FL — Today’s most prosperous liars, con artists, employment scammers, and the fraudulent websites that aid and abed them are about to have their cover blown in a live webinar hosted by professional background screening expert Kevin Connell.

In this free interactive webinar, Connell will share real stories of outrageous resume lies and reveal insider secrets of employment scam artists. Actual names of websites that help con men and scam artists achieve their goal of robbing employers of millions of dollars and trade secrets will be revealed.

“This webinar is a ‘must’ for anyone involved in the hiring, recruiting or staffing of new employees. Have no dissolutions — there are con artists and scammers working the hiring system to rob businesses blind. Knowing what to look for is essential to avoid employment scams and to protect the precious assets of the business,” said Connell.

According to Connell, professional con artists aren’t the only ones lying on resumes and job applications to try to weasel their way into companies.

“When the economy recedes, job applicants tend to lie more. 43% of the job applicants that we do a background check on come back with a discrepancy,” said Connell.

These resume lies, often centered on inflating credentials or hiding criminal history, can chip away at the integrity of a company. The webinar will show employers exactly how to spot these resume lies that can allow unqualified and potentially dangerous people access to the organization.

The webinar will take place on Thursday, September 9th 2010 at 11am Eastern Standard Time.

Attendees can register for the free webinar online at:
http://www.accuscreen.com/media/webinars.

After registering, participants will receive a link to view the live webinar online. Space is limited. Those interested are encouraged to register quickly to reserve their space.

Who are you allowing in your House?

Sue Weaver contacted a major department store to have her air ducts cleaned. She didn’t know they were sending a twice-convicted sex offender into her home–and that he would later rape and murder her.

Her sister started a nonprofit organization to raise awareness about this little-known danger. The Sue Weaver C.A.U.S.E. was created to promote Consumer Awareness of Unsafe Service Employment:

Here are a few other victims, courtesy of the Sue Weaver C.A.U.S.E. website:

• Dr. Kim Fang, a plastic surgeon, was murdered by ex-convict Mesa Kasem (and an accomplice) while working as a delivery man for an auction house. Kasem’s first conviction–for firearms offenses–was when he was 17. He was also a gang member. There was no background check.

• Melissa Danielle Jennings was murdered by the apartment complex maintenance man, Calvin Oliver–a convicted rapist. Oliver’s criminal record, spanning almost 20 years, included armed robbery, burglary, robbery by force and credit card fraud. At the time that he was hired by the apartment complex, TGM Ashley Lakes Inc., there was an outstanding warrant for his arrest on theft check charges. He is sentenced to life in prison for murder. There was no background check.

• Mary Ruth Bales, 80, was beaten to death in her home by an ex-convict, Wesley Purkey, who was working as a plumber. He had spent the last 25 years in prison for various violent felonies, including aggravated robbery, burglary, assault and kidnapping. There was no background check.

• Dr. Kerry Spooner-Dean, a pediatrician, was robbed and stabbed to death in her home by Jerrol Woods. When hired by America’s Best Carpet Care, Woods was on parole following a 12-year prison sentence for armed robbery. He had multiple robbery convictions dating back more than 30 years. He was convicted for life without parole. There was no background check.

• Ramona Jean Williamson was strangled to death by Fred Furnish, an employee of Tech Dry. After killing Mrs. Williamson, Furnish used her debit cards to withdraw money from her bank accounts. Furnish had several convictions in Kentucky and Indiana for theft, burglary, receiving stolen money by fraud, and assaulting a prison guard prior to being hired by Tech Dry. There was no background check.

• Terina Ferminick, a minister’s wife, was raped and stabbed to death in the rectory by carpet cleaner, Giles Nadey. He had two previous felony convictions. There was no background check.

We talked to Kevin Connell, founder and CEO of Accu-Screen, Inc., a background screening agency, and author of Background Checks for the Job: What Every Job Applicant, Employee and Employer Needs to Know About Them Right Now, for tips on keeping yourself and your family safe.

• Ask the company if they run criminal background checks on their employees. “Many times, they’ll say they’re bonded and insured,” he says. “But this just means you might get your money back if the employee steals something. It doesn’t mean they run a criminal background check.”

• If a company doesn’t run background checks, don’t do business with them. Otherwise, you could be unwittingly letting a criminal or murderer into your home. Criminals often use service jobs to find their next victims. Connell says that in prison, they often teach criminals trades like plumbing or duct-cleaning that will later bring them into people’s homes.

• It is always a good idea to have another adult in the house when any kind of service is being done. “Invite a friend or neighbor over for coffee, or make sure your husband is there,” says Connell. “If a lot of people are coming in and out, a criminal might be deterred.”

• Don’t think your children are going to protect you. “Attackers often threaten to harm the children if the woman doesn’t do what he wants,” Connell warns. “They use kids against you.”

• Do not hesitate to say “no” if you do not feel safe when the worker arrives. Tell the person an emergency has come up and you’ll have to reschedule.

Have you ever felt unsafe with a service worker in your home?

Alexandra Zapp was just 30 years old the night convicted sex offender, Paul Leahy, took her life. Alexandra, or “Ally” as those who knew her called her, was on her way home from a charity sunset cruise when she decided to stop at a Burger King at a rest stop in Bridgewater, Massachusetts. It was after midnight, but before leaving the Burger King to continue on her way home, Ally used the restroom. As she exited the restroom, she was met by Paul Leahy. Leahy, 39, and more than twice Ally’s size, pushed her back into the restroom.

The carnage, discovered by an off-duty police officer who happened to be using the men’s room at the time, was hard to believe. Ally had been stabbed six times in the neck, another six times in the chest, and once in the chin. Leahy also sliced her arms, wrist, and one of her hands. He then discarded her in one of the stalls, blood pooling around her body. When off-duty state police Lieutenant opened the ladies room door, investigating the sounds of Ally’s scuffle with her attacker, he found Leahy at the sink. Leahy’s only words were “I lost it.”

Leahy worked at the Burger King Ally stopped at that night. Neither the night manager at the restaurant, and certainly not Ally herself, knew that Leahy was a repeat sex offender with more than 24 convictions under his belt. His convictions included rape, kidnapping, drug possession, breaking and entering, theft, drunk driving, assault, and more. Although prosecutors tried to have Leahy locked up as a dangerous sexual predator, the legal system had other plans. As a convicted sex offender, Leahy was required to register with the Sex Offender Registry Board, but only about 1,000 of the more than 18,000 convicted sex offenders who were required to do so at the time actually did. The state’s record of monitoring sex offenders was even worse. Leahy, like many sex offenders, lived unsupervised, untreated, and free to commit more crimes.

That night, July 17, 2002, should serve as a lesson to anyone who believes that they are safe within the confines of a business. Ally’s murder highlights not only the failure of the legal system to monitor and police dangerous offenders, it also stands as a prime example for employers who may be liable for the crimes their workers commit.

There is little doubt that Burger King would have liked to have avoided the liability and the negative publicity that Leahy’s crime brought. Ally fought hard against her attacker. She bit Leahy’s fingers, head-butted him, kicked, clawed, screamed, and scratched. In the end, it was Leahy who won that particular battle as he had so many times before with victims as young as 13.

Employers also need to fight hard; taking measures that ensure that the employees they hire are not only safe to work with but who also promote an environment that is safe for their customers. There’s no doubt that a solid employer background check policy would have prevented Ally’s death.

KevinConnell.com

Here is a great article written by Kathleen Edmond. The real life story is about Best Buy Ethics, and how one employee can make a huge difference – for good or bad.

Best Buy recently earned some rather embarrassing publicity in a federal court case regarding a $40M fraud scheme involving one of our employees and a vendor.  The employee pled guilty to federal fraud charges and the vendor was convicted in federal court early last month.  Beyond the PR hit, and the financial impact of the fraud, Best Buy was forced to take a hard look at its internal controls and policies and the leaders responsible for them.

The details of the case are readily available on the Internet (simply Google “Chip Factory Best Buy”) but I am most interested in the ethical implications and the power that an individual employee can have on a company – whether for good or bad. The “good” in this case was Matt Dickinson, a manager on our Repair Services team who supports our parts acquisition business. This is Matt’s story.

Curiosity, persistence and a little good luck

Back in early 2007, Matt Dickinson – a long-time employee of Best Buy – was digging into a new role supporting Best Buy’s online parts auction. The company had recently hired an independent third-party agency to facilitate an innovative parts bidding system through which Best Buy purchased computer repair parts on the open market from numerous suppliers. A sort of “reverse eBay,” the auction system enabled Best Buy to quickly and efficiently source the parts needed for computer repairs around the nation, all while theoretically obtaining the best pricing the market would bear on that date for that specific part.

While doing routine research, Matt stumbled upon a $7,500 variance in the payments made to a particular vendor participating in the auction. According to his reports, The Chip Factory had billed Best Buy $7,500 more than the sum total of their winning bids in the parts auction that month. Matt passed this information along to his co-worker in charge of Best Buy’s relationship with The Chip Factory.  Matt was told that it was an honest mistake and would be addressed.

Several months passed when Matt was doing more research into auction results. In doing so, he discovered an invoicing error on the part of one vendor that resulted in large discrepancies in their billings to Best Buy. When shown the data, the vendor was greatly embarrassed by the mistake and immediately repaid Best Buy for any cumulative excess billings. The discovery made an impression on Matt, however. “It occurred to me that there was the potential for a lack of control in this portion of the auction system. I figured if this mistake could go unnoticed here, it could happen elsewhere.”

Matt decided to run a variance report across all vendors participating in the auction and quickly saw a familiar name – The Chip Factory. This latest report showed The Chip Factory had billed Best Buy $175,000 more than the total of their winning bids that month. Again, Matt passed the information to his neighbor, Bob, who pledged to get to the bottom of the issue with his vendor partner. This time, however, Matt also approached a co-worker who understood the complexities of the auction billing system better than he. This co-worker gave Matt some alarming news; when multiplied by the total quantity of parts purchased through the auction, the excess billings levied by The Chip Factory that month actually exceeded $1.7 million.

With the stakes suddenly much larger, Matt requested a similar variance report dating back 18 months. To his horror, it showed that The Chip Factory had consistently overbilled for parts – a variance now totaling tens of millions of dollars. Alarmed but not ready to accuse, Matt checked and rechecked his work. “I verified the numbers many times and in many different ways. It all added up to one conclusion. Somehow, it appeared The Chip Factory had identified and exploited a blind spot in our system that enabled them to selectively over- and underbill us in a way that hid the fact that they were wildly overbilling us over the course of a month.”

At this point, Matt engaged Best Buy’s Legal department, Internal Audit and our Asset Protection specialists. Not wanting to jump to conclusions, Best Buy hired a highly regarded “forensic accountant” to research the auction data. The ensuing investigation quietly continued for more than a year with everyone wondering what had happened. No one, not even Matt, imagined that Bob – the employee in the cube next door – might somehow be involved.

Several weeks later, the truth hit the front page of the newspaper. Bob had been indicted on charges stemming from an investigation carried out by the FBI, U.S. Attorney’s Office and the U.S. Postal Inspector. Bob eventually admitted to Federal investigators that he had accepted more than $100,000 in cash, a motorcycle and other lavish gifts from The Chip Factory in return for enabling the fraud against Best Buy. The husband and wife owners of The Chip Factory were subsequently indicted and convicted at trial, and all are currently awaiting sentencing.

Clearly, the implications of this story are enormous. By simply doing his job and asking questions, Matt uncovered what will hopefully be the largest (and last) fraud ever committed against Best Buy. When asked what advice he has to share with others, this is what Matt said:

* “Openness is critical. If you have an environment where anyone can talk to anyone, it enables non-threatening conversations to happen.”

* “Trust your instincts. If something does not smell right, do your homework, investigate and don’t stop until you get a clear answer either way.”

* “Know the business. All the signs were there if we just knew to look for them. Clearly, not enough controls were in place in the auction system in those days relative to the risk to Best Buy.”

* “Listen to the people around you. After the fact, we learned that other employees had asked why we were paying such ridiculous prices for certain parts. As it turns out, they could see something we couldn’t.

* “If someone really wants to rip you off, there is not much you can do to prevent it. No one goes to work thinking the person in the next cube could be capable of something like that, but it’s true. All of the controls in the world cannot eliminate the possibility that a trusted partner might be looking for ways around those controls.”

So, is Best Buy any different today than it was in 2007? From his vantage point, Matt has seen significant changes:

* “The entire culture of my department is different today. It’s very transparent and we are completely open to discussing issues now. Before this happened, our culture was extremely territorial and not welcoming of disagreement.”

* “We have a sincere ‘open door’ mentality now. People can talk to anyone they want – up, down or across the department. That kind of access and trust didn’t exist before.”

* “Leaders focus on assigning roles to people based on their natural strengths so the best talent and the best ‘fit’ is in every job.”

* “Best Buy’s Gifts and Gratuities policy is much more conservative.  Today, you might get an occasional business dinner at a local restaurant. Extravagant dinners and entertainment are out.”

* “Of course, we have much more rigorous controls on everything now. Every process is scrutinized to make sure it is as tight as possible.”

Learning from our mistakes

As painful as this episode has been for Best Buy, it has enabled enormous growth. The balance between trusting the humility and integrity of the people around us and the need for healthy professional skepticism has become much clearer. What have you learned from this story?

1.    Which was more troubling to you? The actions of The Chip Factory or that of the Best Buy employee who assisted them? Why?

2.    Does your team have the kind of “open door” culture that Matt described above? If someone suspected an ethical issue on your team, would they feel free to talk to anyone – up, down or across the department? How can you be sure?

3.    Have you ever seen a situation where “territorial” leadership behavior created an environment where unethical behaviors went unchallenged? What did you do about it and how did it turn out.

4.    Do you think entertainment, gifts and other business courtesies from vendor partners are always OK, never OK, or somewhere in between? If the latter, where would you draw the line?

Question by Kenny L: NC Pre-employment drug screening?
I’ve had a couple good interviews with a company. I received a call from the HR recruiter and he said – I must complete the drug screening/background check before an offer is made. I was told “there’s no point in making an offer when come to find out you fail the screening.”

Is this legal? I’ve changed jobs before and it has always been, offer made/accepted – then you go do the screenings/checks..

Did this company violate NC/federal laws?
Don’t get me wrong, I want the job and will pass any/all tests. I’ve just always accepted the offer, then a couple days later do the testing/screenings..

Best answer:

Answer by charmayns
It’s legal. They’re not breaking any laws. The fact that they’re testing you means that you’ve got the job as long as you pass. The hiring company must pay for those tests therefore, they’re only going to spend money on those that they think are worth. Clean up and pass the test. Good Luck!

Know better? Leave your own answer in the comments!

This story was taken from KTLA – LA News as a great representation of why Employee Background Screening is so vital. Every employer needs do their do diligence and make sure they know who they are hiring or they could fall victim just like the employer below.

LOS ANGELES — An Inglewood woman is accused of embezzling $1.6 million dollars from her boss to fund a lavish lifestyle. Detectives say Holly Daunielle Martin-Campbell, 37, stole the money while working as an administrative secretary at Blue Daisy Cement Products near Gardena.

Campbell used the money to buy a home in a gated community next to Hollywood Park, purchase a $22,000 Ducati motorcycle for her husband and a BMW sport utility vehicle for herself, eat at expensive restaurants and attend sporting events and concerts, according to L.A. County Sheriff’s detective Christopher Derry.

Martin-Campbell was arrested Tuesday on felony charges of grand theft and forgery.
Her boss says he had no idea she had served a 16-month prison sentence in the late 1990s for credit card fraud when he hired her in 2002. Martin-Campbell was in charge of accounts receivable. Her job was to process the incoming checks from customers, Detective Derry said.

An investigation found that she began depositing checks into her own bank account in 2004. The checks, which were for a few thousand dollars up to $21,000, were made out to Blue Daisy, but Bank of America still accepted the checks, Derry said. She would then delete the transactions.

The scam was uncovered in late 2008 when a Blue Daisy accountant realized the company’s profits did not match the amount of product they were selling. The company’s owner began scrutinizing the business transactions and found that Martin-Campbell had been depositing the checks into her own account.

Martin-Campbell is being held on $1.5 million dollars bail. She faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted. Martin-Campbell’s parents have paid $300,000 toward restitution but $1.3 million is still owed to Blue Daisy.

“Infinity screening” can protect businesses during the economic downturn, Accu-Screen reports

Chalk up one more negative consequence of the economic downturn: employee fraud and thefts are on the rise.

Employees facing increased financial hardships (such as having a spouse who was laid off, a sick family member or a home at risk of foreclosure) are more likely to take illegal actions to augment their incomes.

“The stress of these types of situations has lead to violence in the workplace, embezzlement and identity theft,” says Kevin Connell, chief executive officer and founder of Accu-Screen. “Employee larceny and other illegal acts can weaken or even ruin a corporation.”

In a February 19th Wall Street Journal article on this trend, Simona Covel reported: “Small companies are especially vulnerable because they often lack stringent internal controls to prevent fraud. Sometimes managers of affected companies attribute lost funds to lower sales – never even suspecting foul play.”

The following facts show how widespread this problem is:

* American organizations lose an average of 7 percent of their revenues to occupational fraud, according to the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners.

* The costs of fraud in the U.S. are estimated at billion annually.

* Embezzlement has been the No. 1 financial crime for the past four decades; almost one-third of all company bankruptcies can be attributed to embezzlement.

* Fraud, identity theft and property thefts account for 60 percent of a company’s annual losses.

* Common employee frauds include false invoicing, check forgery, theft of cash and goods and setting up ghost employees or ghost vendors.

Many frauds are conducted by trusted long-term employees who are in positions of responsibility, such as bookkeepers and accountants. Companies should watch out for employees who are living a lifestyle that seems beyond their means, as well as employees who never take a vacation or try to prevent others from seeing the firm’s books or accounting software.

While most hiring managers understand the benefits of screening new hires, it’s less common for companies to continue screening their current employees. This can be a costly mistake. There is no guarantee that an employee who is hired with a clean criminal and credit record will remain that way.

Periodic credit and criminal background checks, also known as “continuous screening” or “infinity background screening,” have been shown to be effective risk management tools for companies and a major deterrent against potential fraud.

“The ‘employee from hell’ can kill a business in a New York minute,” Connell says. “Pre-employment screening reduces the risk of a bad hiring decision; post-employment screening minimizes the risk to which a company is exposed over the long term.”

By hiring a reputable background screening firm such as Accu-Screen, businesses can protect their company from fraud and help ensure their survival during the current economic crisis.

AccuScreen

KevinConnell.com

We’ve all seen them—pop-up messages telling you your computer is infected with a virus. To get rid of it, all you have to do is order the antivirus software being advertised.

Before you click, though, know this: few Internet security companies use ads to tell you about a virus on your computer. Most of these pop-ups are scams, and it’s one of the fastest-growing types of Internet fraud today.

These scams have a name. They’re called “scareware” because they try to frighten you into purchasing fake antivirus software with a seemingly genuine security warning. But if you do try to buy this program, it will either do nothing…or it could compromise your computer by installing malicious software onto your system. And in some instances, you don’t even have to click on the pop-up box…the software downloads automatically.

Cyber criminals often use notorious botnets—networks of compromised computers under their control—to push out their software. They’ll also masquerade as legitimate Internet security companies and buy ads on other websites—called “malvertising”—but when consumers click on the ads to purchase the products, they are redirected to websites controlled by the bad guys.

Many of these criminals operate outside the U.S., making investigations difficult and complex for the FBI and its partners. But we’ve had successes—just this past May, for example, three people were charged in Illinois in connection with a scheme that caused Internet users in more than 60 countries, including the U.S., to buy more than $100 million worth of bogus scareware software.

Two of the defendants, including an American, are accused of running an overseas company that claimed to sell antivirus and computer performance/repair software over the Internet. A third man operated the company’s Cincinnati call center, which was responsible for technical and billing support to its customers (but in reality deflected complaints from consumers who realized the software didn’t work).

According to the indictment, proceeds from the sales of the software (which was typically purchased by credit card) were deposited into bank accounts controlled by the defendants and others throughout the world and then quickly transferred to accounts in Europe.

In addition to the consumers victimized by the scam, a number of legitimate companies tricked into selling ad space on their websites for the bogus software were allegedly defrauded of about $85,000 in unpaid fees.

Don’t let it happen to you. Here are a few words of advice on scareware.

How to spot a scareware scam:

Does the pop-up use “non-clickable” icons? To build authenticity into their software, scareware will show a list of reputable icons—like those of software companies or security publications. However, the user can’t click through to the sites to see the actual reviews or recommendations.

Is the pop-up ad hard to close? Scareware pop-ups employ aggressive techniques and will not close easily after clicking the “close” or “X” button.

Have you heard of the software before? Cyber criminals use easy-to-remember names like Virus Shield, Antivirus, or VirusRemover.

KANSAS CITY, KS—A 1,000-a-year executive at the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD’s) office in Kansas City, Kan., has been sentenced to 12 months and a day in federal prison for taking pay for hours he did not work, U.S. Attorney Lanny Welch said today.

The sentence also includes two years of supervised release, a ,000 special assessment, and ,925 in restitution to HUD.

In March, a jury found Herman S. Ransom, 53, Olathe, Kan., guilty on 10 counts of wire fraud and 10 counts of theft of public funds. During a trial in U.S. District Court in Kansas City, Kan., prosecutors presented evidence that federal investigators kept Ransom under surveillance for 32 separate days while he went to casinos and/or played tennis during hours he was paid to work. Investigators compiled and analyzed records from the Overland Park Racquet Club and casinos in Kansas City to determine that between 2001 and 2007, Ransom collected ,925 in pay for hours he did not work.

As Hub Director of HUD’s office in Kansas City, Kan., Ransom was responsible for supervising approximately 89 employees in Kansas City, Kan., St. Louis, Des Moines, Omaha, Tulsa, and Oklahoma City. His duties included overseeing the Office of Multifamily Housing for Kansas, Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska, and Oklahoma. As a GS-15 level supervisor, Ransom’s working hours were set at 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. He certified on pay reports that he worked 40 hours a week when in fact he knew he had taken personal time off during work hours. The false reports were sent electronically from Kansas City, Kan., to the National Finance Center in New Orleans, La., for processing and payment.

Welch commended the Department of Housing and Urban Development – Office of Inspector General, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Tris Hunt for their work on the case.

AccuScreen

KevinConnell.com

Question by PenisMan: My employment history is going to be “screened” – will my exagerrated employment dates count against me?
Hello. A job for which I have applied requires me to be screened. Part of this screening process will undoubtedly be concerned with my employment history.

The problem is, I couldn’t remember the start and end dates for 2 of my 3 past jobs, so I just made them up. What’s more, I *kind of* erred on the side of making me look good, adding perhaps as much as 6 months to either side of my employment periods.

All my jobs so far have been on a part-time, casual basis – meaning that I had no definite hours or wages, or even end-dates. And I have been at university for 4 of the past 5 years. And my past employment has absolutely no relevance to the job for which I’m applying.

With these things in mind, do you think that my errant employment dates will count against me? Should I tell them in the interview that I just guessed the dates? And that I *may* have exaggerated a little bit?

Best answer:

Answer by suzie_lea_2007
What type of job is it. the screening may be to see if you have a police record if you’re working in an industry like child, aged or disability care.

Ask them exactly what they will be screening

If they do need to investigate you’re previous job history I’d tell them that you guessed and may have exaggerated them if you think you may have added as much as 6 months. Another idea is get in touch with the companies that you’ve worked for and ask them for your start and end dates and put these on an updated resume. Even if you were doing part time/ casual work the company should have a record of when you started and when you left the company.

Add your own answer in the comments!