Help and support
Provide guidance and support to customers, employees and third parties to ensure they follow correct processes, comply with rules and meet expectations.
This control targets both internal and external fraud risks.
Examples
Examples of this control include:
- clear statements about behaviour that is not acceptable
- clear guidance documentation outlining rules and eligibility criteria
- telephone support and coaching
- web content, chatbots and frequently asked questions
- regular communications on updates and requirements.
Risks from control gap
A lack of help and support for individuals to understand requirements and follow correct processes can lead to:
- frustrated employees, clients or third parties who may become motivated to commit fraud or rationalise fraudulent or corrupt behaviour
- clients, employees or third parties acting inconsistently or making errors resulting in higher levels of non-compliance
- weaknesses in processes and controls that fraudsters can exploit
- less visibility of fraud and corruption risks
- fraud or corrupt activity going unnoticed or unchallenged.
Assessing effectiveness
Methods to evaluate the effectiveness of this control include:
- confirming help and support guidelines are documented, current and accessible
- conducting trend analysis of call wait times to identify whether delays in accessing support may increase non-compliance, workarounds or fraud risk
- walking through the programme to assess how easy it is for a user to understand requirements, access support and complete the process correctly
- undertaking testing or a process walkthrough to confirm that help and responsive support is provided in practice
- ensuring there are feedback and reporting processes in place to keep help and support guidelines relevant and identify opportunities for improvement
- undertaking an employee survey that includes questions on receiving coaching, communication and support.
Complementary controls
Other capability, prevention, detection and response controls that can enhance this control’s effectiveness:
Related fraudster personas
Types of behaviour this control is designed to mitigate:
The deceiver
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The enabler
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The exploiter
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Download the complete fraud control catalogue
Explore a range of controls that can be put in place to reduce the risk of fraud happening in your organisation.
More information
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