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The Five Biggest Dental Embezzlement Myths:
1. My dental practice is immune because...
People have lots of reasons why they think there practice is immune (for example, they live in a small community and think of embezzlement as an urban problem).
Embezzlement can happen in any practice, and has far more to do with the thief's circumstances than yours.
2. Thieves only steal cash.
Many dentists believe that checks may payable to their practice are safe -- they aren't. On a daily basis, we see thieves steal checks payable to their dentists.
3. Most embezzlement happens because background checking isn't properly done.
We do see "serial embezzlers" who move from practice to practice, successfully hiding their checkered past. However, these thieves account for less than 15% of the embezzlement we find. The vast majority of embezzlement is carried out by long-term employees with no criminal past.
4. Control systems prevent embezzlement.
The thieves we see are really good at looking at what control systems are in place in an office and designing their embezzlement to dance around the control in place. We also see lots of adaptability -- if you implement additional controls, thieves will quickly adapt their stealing patterns to overcome the changes.
5. Financial inconsistencies are what give embezzlers away.
An ADA study released in 2008 showed that only 1/3 of embezzlement was uncovered by financial inconsistencies, with the remaining 2/3 of embezzlement given away by culprits' behavior.
If you think you might be a victim, you can call us at 888-398-2327 , or send email to our embezzlement hotline (checked daily by our on-duty investigator at emergency@dentalembezzlement.com ). We will normally respond within 24 hours.
Also, if you want our popular (and free) Embezzlement Risk Assessment Questionnaire, you can ask for it here.
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