World first: Australia’s legal system uses Facebook™

In what is considered to be a world first, the Australian Capital Territory - Supreme Court has determined that the social networking site, Facebook, is an acceptable medium for serving court documents.

“ ‘Facebook™ helps you to connect and share with the people in your life’… including lenders who want to repossess your house and the lawyers who want to enforce it. Employers and scammers are also regularly accessing Facebook details.”

The December 2008 landmark decision was delivered after lawyers from Canberra’s Meyer Vandenberg firm made numerous unsuccessful attempts to serve court notices to Gordon Poyser and Carmel Corbo. The couple had defaulted on a $154,000 loan and a judgement against them for the loan plus interest was made after they failed to turn up to court to defend the matter.

Mark MacCormack and Jason Oliver, lawyers at Meyer Vandenberg, had attempted to personally serve the documents on Poyser and Corbo by visiting both the home and work addresses of the individuals. The papers were also sent to their email addresses. Still unsuccessful, they made a special application to the Court to permit the documents being served on Poyser and Corbo through their Facebook accounts.

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Occupational Fraud – A Workplace Hazard

Occupational Fraud, little understood but potentially a crippling problem costs business hundreds of billions of dollars globally each year. As the world’s major economies slow it is crucial to understand the risks, know what to look for and to implement strategies that uncover and decrease vulnerability.

In 2008, the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners released its 5th “Report to the Nation on Occupational Fraud and Abuse”. The Report based on the results of a survey sent to 16,606 Certified Fraud Examiners (CFE’s) looks at almost 1,000 cases of the single largest occupational frauds dealt with by each respondent; the means by which it occurred and the effectiveness of anti-fraud controls. This article reviews the significant findings made in the Report.

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Protecting Your Business Against Fraud

The results of the ACFE’s recently published 2008 - Report to the Nation on Occupational Fraud and Abuse – “the Report” show that anti-fraud controls are not only an effective means of decreasing the likelihood of a fraud occurring, they also lessen the financial impact in the event that one occurs. This article explores some effective strategies for combating occupational fraud.

• Knowing the risk - Privately owned companies employing less than 100 personnel are the most commonly defrauded organisations. They accounted for over 39% of frauds and were also found to suffer the greatest financial loss, averaging $278,000*. Public companies are the next most frequent victims (28%), followed by government organisations (18%). Not-for-profit organisations experience the lowest incidence of fraudulent activity; however, they still account for 14% of all cases loosing an average of $100,000 per fraud.

• Understanding why frauds occur - Many occupational frauds occur simply because they are allowed to happen. Lack of adequate controls was identified as the most common reason for fraud. Businesses which do not implement checks and balances or which give too much autonomy to employees often facilitate fraud, as individuals learn there is little chance their actions will be noticed, checked or questioned. Given that the average life span of an occupational fraud is two (2) years, and many perpetrators are first time offenders, it appears that many frauds occur simply because of opportunity.

• Creating an anti-fraud environment - The Report found that organisations which have implemented anti-fraud controls experienced significantly lower losses than those which have none or only poor controls in place.

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