Spam phone calls are not just annoying they cost businesses and private citizens billions of dollars every year. Current technology called spoofing allows scammers to create caller IDs that make it appear the call is coming from the same area code or a local three digit prefix. You can even apply the name of a business such as the power company making it more likely for you to answer the call and fall victim to their scam. The Washington Post reports that in 2017 3.9% of cell phone calls were spam, that increased to 29.2% in 2018 and is expected to reach 44.6%.
These scammers can pose as anyone, but the most common phone scams have the thieves posing as electric or power companies, Taco Bell Corporate, IRS, local government, FBI, or other policing agencies.
In order to protect against these types of scams it is against BurgerBusters Inc. policy for store employees to make any payment from store funds. All callers requesting payment or business information should be directed to call the home office, no exceptions. If you experience one of these calls while at work, you need to direct the caller to the home office and hang up the phone if the caller persists. Reports all of these calls to your District Manager.
The company works very hard to ensure all funds processed are properly accounted for, deposited correctly, and then utilized to grow the organization. When funds are mis-used or stolen all of us are impacted. The potential less development funds and time spent tied up chasing the cash compared to growing the business slows us down from being a more productive company.
BurgerBusters Inc. realizes that it difficult to make ends meet, pay the bills, and take care of all needs in the fast paced world we all live in. Far too often one of our employees makes a poor decision and takes funds that simply do not belong to them, they steal. What would happen if that same employee would reach out for help whether it is internally seeking proper guidance on banks, loans, and extra work in other stores all designed to prevent un-welcome actions? The company would like each employee to reach out instead of making the wrong decision. We cannot promise nor commit that we can meet all needs, but we certainly can point you in the right direction.
When you make the wrong decision, the following actions will take place. You will be investigated and if found to be taking cash or product that does not belong to you your employment will be terminated and the theft reported to the police.
If you are not stealing from the company why should you care about who is? More and more frequently we are catching employees stealing from fellow employees. These employees have taken cell phones, jewelry, cash, and other items that belong to our employees. In each of these cases BurgerBusters Inc.’s Asset Protection team offers to provide video to the police and any other evidence needed to prosecute the individual who wronged our employee.
If you know of someone taking things in the store that do not belong to that person, please report it on the network line. You can report this anonymously or leave your name and number and someone from Asset Protection will contact you. If you are thinking about stealing understand stealing will only complicate and increase your financial problems.
By: Deb Baylor
Director of Asset Protection
