She told her how her company is helping people report fraud anonymously and still receive their rewards.
Colette Symanowitz:Ive been in tech and marketing for a number of years.
After completing my MBA in 2007, my aim was to move out of the medical industry.
FraudCracker is very similar to WhatsApp, except for the anonymity. The whistleblower gives themselves a nickname but there is no other identifying information. So they are completely anonymous when reporting fraud to the company’s authority figures (e.g. CFO, CEO, etc) and cannot be victimized.
This was the seed that led to MBAconnect.net.
What I loved about the tech space was that there was a lot of freedom back then.
The tech industry was refreshingly different for me.
SD: What does FraudCracker do to help companies stay safe from fraud?
CS:FraudCracker helps companies fight against fraud via our online interactive chat technology.
SD: What verticals use your services?
For example, in the US, youve got the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.
In South Africa, there is the Companies Act.
SD: How does FraudCracker stay ahead of the competition?
CS:The typical competitors in our space are the fraud-reporting phone hotlines.
They have been around for decades.
Hotlines can work, but they come with a number of problems.
Even though the phone hotlines provide some degree of anonymity, employees have theperceptionthat they arent anonymous.
For example, the Truecaller app can identify your name from your mobile number.
This is all in the back of peoples minds when theyre deciding whether or not to report fraud.
They dont think theyre anonymous and theyre afraid of being victimized.
So, they dont report.
They rather keep quiet.
Another problem with phone hotlines is that its difficult to have a back-and-forth follow-up conversation with the whistleblower.
Heres how FraudCracker solves these problems: The whistleblower provides only a nickname, no other form of identification.
Yet, they can still have a back-and-forth online conversation with the company authority figures similar to WhatsApp.
FraudCracker is very similar to WhatsApp, except for the anonymity.
The whistleblower gives themselves a nickname but there is no other identifying information.
So they are completely anonymous when reporting fraud to the companys authority figures (e.g.
CFO, CEO, etc) and cannot be victimized.
Also, if the hotline uses a landline phone, you cant upload evidence of fraud.
Hotlines can also be expensive to run because they have to be manned 24/7 with call center staff.
So, we can pass on these lower operating costs to our clients.
In the US, the Securities and Exchange Commission has had a lot of success by rewarding whistleblowers.
The SEC gives big monetary rewards between 10% and 30% of the value of the fraud claim.
These huge rewards have led to a 16-fold rise in whistleblowing.
However, with FraudCracker, we can do this, while still keeping the whistleblower completely anonymous.
This means you pay a flat fee, regardless of the number of countries.
Unlike a hotline, you wont be charged per country.
These are some of the differentiators that enable us to stay ahead of the competition.
SD: Do you feel that fraud is the biggest threat to security?
CS:There are so many different security threats, and fraud is definitely one of the biggest.
But other security threats can be just as damaging, like malware, ransomware, or identity theft.
