One of the best ways to ascertain whether you need a certain
cover or not is to look at a ‘real-life’ claims scenario and apply it to your
business… could this happen? If the answer is yes then the next question must
be ‘what is the maximum possible loss?’. Once you have worked that out then ask
yourself whether you could swallow that without any disturbance to your
business. Today’s example (a true story) reads as follows…
An employee is dealing with some supplier invoicing and
has some correspondence from a regular supplier notifying of a change of bank
details. The letter is on the same headed paper as they have always received
and even has a number to call to verify the authenticity (although the number
takes you through to the fraudster). Changes to the bank details are made and
over the subsequent weeks three payments are released totalling close to
£400,000. Discovery of the fraud occurred when the genuine supplier contacted
the firm stating that they had not made any payments. The money was never
recovered.
This sort of fraud is increasingly common, particularly as
in the world of email and electronic paperwork a company logo, names and even
signatures are readily available to fraudsters. Seemingly a legitimate piece of
post can result in a significant loss. Theft by deception is not generally an
insured peril and in fact on most policies (including your motor policy) theft
by deception is specifically excluded. In addition the money in your bank
account is not insured under your commercial policy. So what is the solution?
Well we are pleased to confirm that this scenario, amongst others, can be
insured under a crime policy. Other covers available under a crime policy
include
·
Internal Crime (fraud / dishonesty of employees)
·
External Crime (forgery, counterfeiting etcetera
as in the scenario above)
·
Cheque Fraud (a customer altering a cheque and
cashing for a higher amount)
·
Computer Fraud (stealing monies, intellectual or
physical property through cyber means – hacking in and getting goods delivered
to a different location for example)
·
Transfer Fraud (the fraudulent transfer of
money)
·
Corporate Card Fraud (where corporate cards are
stolen and used fraudulently
There are other extensions available but the covers below
are the key inclusions. Although if we go forward we will need a proposal form
it is possible to get an indication of the cost with the following details
·
Name
·
Trade
·
Company Locations
·
Turnover and Wage-Roll
·
Number of Staff
·
Loss History Relevant to the Cover
Please do not hesitate to contact us should you want to talk
about this cover further.
Yours
Alistair
