TOKYO — Recently, damage caused by unscrupulous contractors exploiting everyday household problems has been on the rise in Japan. One of the most prominent examples is repair work involving household electrical breaker panels. It is difficult to see through a contractor’s bad intentions, and there are “traps” lurking in internet searches, too. Looking into the methods used in these scams reveals just how they work.
At the end of March 2025, a 67-year-old woman in Tokyo’s Adachi Ward was left bewildered. Perhaps because the switches were broken, the lights in her kitchen and Japanese-style room would not turn on. Her eldest daughter, 40, searched online and quickly found a repair company. Its website…
PAYROLL & HR CONTROLS (PREVENTING “GHOST” SCHEMES)
Payroll fraud is often the hardest to detect because it “looks” like a normal business expense.
- Segregation of Duties (SoD): The person who adds new employees to the system must not be the same person who approves the monthly pay run.
- Mandatory Vacation Policy: Require all financial and HR staff to take 5–10 consecutive days of leave annually. Fraud often surfaces when the perpetrator isn’t there to “hide” the trail.
- Ghost Employee Audit: Perform a quarterly “Headcount Reconciliation” where managers must physically verify every name on their payroll list exists.
- Self-Pay Blocking: Ensure the payroll software has a hard-coded block preventing administrators from editing their own salary or bank details.