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University of California Riverside W2 Phony Invoice Scams Discussion
WEEK 2 DISCUSSION: PHONY INVOICE SCAMS
Prompt
A popular method for defrauding a company is to issue a phony invoice. The scam begins by initially contacting the target firm to discover details of key business contacts, business operations, and products. The swindler then uses this information to create a fictitious invoice. The invoice will include names, figures, and other details to give it the appearance of legitimacy. Scott County Schools was a victim of the above scam in 2017.
Scott County Schools in Kentucky announced that it was the victim of a major attack that resulted in a loss of $3.7 million. This was a typical invoice scam where the school was notified that an invoice was outstanding, the school duly paid the fake invoice. Once the fact this was a wire fraud incident, the FBI was contacted, and attempts were made to recover the funds. Initially, it was it is unclear whether it will be possible to recover the money. Just today it was confirmed that the school district in Kentucky recovered the $3.7 million stolen by the hacker in this cyber wire fraud scam.
Initial Post
- Begin by reading the prompt
- Answer the two (2) discussion questions:
- How can scams like this be avoided?
- What policies should be implemented by companies to detect phony invoices sooner?
Reply Posts
Replies are a way for you to have a conversation with your online classmates. This is the give-and-take of listening and responding like a face-to-face conversation. Remember to be polite and respectful of difference, uniqueness, and the unknown.
- You will reply two (2) times: (1) an affirmative role AND (2) defensive role to two or more of your classmates.
- Read or view a classmates post.
- Once you are ready, click on the Reply right beneath their post
- Post either a 1-2 minutes video reply or a word text reply.
- Affirmative role:
- Students respond with supporting statements and are required to back statements with additional facts/resources (i.e. opinions, polls, articles, memes, etc)
- Defense role:
- Students respectfully disagree and also support your statement with additional facts/resources (i.e. opinions, polls, articles, memes, etc
- Affirmative role:
Student 1:
After reading the prompt above, scams like the one with Scott County Schools in Kentucky can be avoided by doing a few things. An article from The Credit Protection Association recommends using 3-way matching, watching invoice amounts, or keeping up moral within the company (Salmon, 2019). The operations director James Salmon also recommended checking on supplies, tracking invoice activity, and several other protocols to avoid invoice scams.
A policy that should be implemented by companies to detect phony invoices would be to implement “fuzzy matching”. If companies have a program that allows fuzzy matching this would allow for the company to catch near-duplicates or identical invoices.
Source:https://cpa.co.uk/15-steps-to-avoid-invoice-fraud/
Student 2:
Scammers have a tendency to lie and manipulate. Don’t be fooled or put under pressure and assume you owe the debt. Scams like these could possibly be avoided by being cautious and verifying the liabilities on your balance sheet. If it’s a significant amount of money, I would subtly interrogate them. Setting clear policies that companies can follow to detect phony scammers can prevent such losses. For example, you must verify your debts with your companies accountants to make sure you even owe a debt. Then, phony invoice issuer must provide traceable info that can be used so that if a scam were to happen, it can be traced back to them.
WEEK 2 DISCUSSION: ON BEING GREEN
Prompt
Process manufacturing often involves significant energy and material resources, which can be harmful to the environment. Thus, many process manufacturing companies, such as chemical, electronic, and metal processors, must address environmental issues. Companies such as DuPont, Intel, Apple, and Alcoa are at the forefront of providing environmental solutions for their products and processes.
For example, Apple provides free recycling programs for Macs, iPhones, and iPads. Apple recovers more than 90% by weight of the original product in reusable components, glass, and plastic. You can even receive a free gift card for voluntarily recycling an older Apple product.
Initial Post
- Begin by reading the prompt
- Answer the three (3) discussion questions:
- Do you think believe these efforts are enough to address environmental issues? Why or why not?
- What are the cost associated with companies implementing recycling programs? Does cost outweigh benefits
- Who’s responsibility is it to eliminate environmental waste?
Reply Posts
Replies are a way for you to have a conversation with your online classmates. This is the give-and-take of listening and responding like a face-to-face conversation. Remember to be polite and respectful of difference, uniqueness, and the unknown.
- You will reply two (2) times: (1) an affirmative role AND (2) defensive role to two or more of your classmates.
- Read or view a classmates post.
- Once you are ready, click on the Reply right beneath their post.
- Post either a 1-2 minutes video reply or a word text reply.
- Affirmative role:
- Students respond with supporting statements and are required to back statements with additional facts/resources (i.e. opinions, polls, articles, memes, etc)
- Defense role:
- Students respectfully disagree and also support your statement with additional facts/resources (i.e. opinions, polls, articles, memes, etc
- Affirmative role:
Student 1:
After reading the prompt, I do not think the efforts listed above are enough to address environmental issues. Although I think that it’s a good start by recycling old products that are no longer being used, I do not think that it’s enough to make a significant dent in the ongoing environmental issues our world has. I think that companies need to find better and more environmentally friendly ways in which they manufacture their products.
The cost associated with companies implementing recycling programs would be very little in comparison to the benefits that recycling has on the environment and the economy. Especially for electronic recycling programs such as the one through Apple, these recycling programs can help to reduce air pollution, save land and energy, and reduces the production cost of goods such as Apple electronics (techdump.org).
Due to the Waste Act, waste holders including private individuals, property owners, or companies are primarily responsible for eliminating environmental waste.
Student 2:
1. I think the current efforts companies follow do remain green aren’t enough to deal with the environmental issues. Just because many big companies are the main source carbon emission and there should be carbon tax to really help our environment and cut the emissions carbon we produce as a nation .
2..The associated cost with implementing recycling programs it will have a big price tag start these programs to mange recycling . Many argue that this would double energy consumption and cause pollution while cost tax payer dollar to dispose of old regular trash. Recycling may help the environment but at same time it cost energy to recycle which cause pollution. I think sometimes the benefits outweigh the cons,3
3. The Unites States Environmental Protection Agency is responsible to eliminate environmental waste and enforcing the standard codes. EPA takes action by protecting communities from illegal and high risk hazardous waste operations.
https://www.thoughtco.com/benefits-of-recycling-outweigh-the-costs-1204141
