One mistake many people make is thinking that they could never face fraud charges. The thought that they could find themself under investigation probably never even crosses their mind
Unfortunately, they’d be wrong.
Certain professions are more at risk
If your job involves showing people around a national park or clipping dogs’ nails in a pet salon, there is an inherently lower chance you are accused of fraud than if you work as a financial advisor or trader. But few if any careers are completely free of this risk.
Let’s take the park ranger. They might have to do some admin in their role such as issuing tickets or ordering supplies. If there are mistakes in their paperwork related to these transactions they might find themselves under investigation for fraud is someone believes that those mistakes are intentional.
What about the pet salon worker? Maybe a customer complains to their bank that their credit card has been charged twice for certain visits. Or that their bills contain items their pet never received. Those investigating the alleged fraud might believe that someone in the salon is responsible and cast suspicion on everyone who works there. It could be a worrying time for employees, even if it later turns out that the customer was correctly billed after all or that fraud did occur but was perpetrated by someone external who hacked the salon’s payment page.
You should not be convicted of fraud unless you actually set out to defraud someone. But that is not to say you won’t ever need to learn about your rights as almost anyone could find themself wrongly accused of fraud if they are unlucky.
