打印机墨水消失案

作者：Michael Yamma, CFE;Brian Molloy，法学博士，CFE

Despite futurists' predictions, we don' t live in a paperless business world. Printer ink and toner are still an expensive necessity. Fraudsters depend on ink costing organizations more than caviar. Here' s how to prevent this asset misappropriation and possibly save millions.

尽管未来学家做出了预测，但我们并不是生活在一个无纸化的商业世界中。打印机墨水和碳粉仍然是昂贵的必需品。舞弊者依赖墨水使组织的墨水成本高于鱼子酱。以下是防止这种资产被盗用并可能节省数百万美元的方法。

Scores of people get taken to the cleaners in Las Vegas. It' sjust that the one who ends up in the red usually isn' t the local government. But that happened to be the case when a municipal purchasing analyst managed to steal $6,715,531 in toner and ink cartridges from her employer within eight years. That’ s an average of $746,170 in toner and ink per year!

数十人被带到拉斯维加斯的清洁工那里。只是最终陷入困境的人通常不是当地政府。但碰巧的是，当一位市政采购分析师设法在八年内从雇主那里偷走了6,715,531美元的墨水和碳粉时。平均每年746,170美元的墨水和碳粉！

The Las Vegas Valley Water District hired Jennifer J. McCain-Bray in 2001 and in late 2007 promoted her to be its purchasing analyst. She worked with department vendors and ordered supplies but also began stealing what eventually would amount to thousands of toner and ink cartridges. (See the U.S. Department of Justice release, Jan. 29, 2019.)

拉斯维加斯谷水区于2001年聘请了Jennifer J. McCain-Bray并于2007年底晋升为采购分析师。她与部门供应商合作、订购物资，但也开始偷窃最终相当于数千个墨水和碳粉的东西。（参见美国司法部2019年1月29日新闻稿）

McCain-Bray' s fraud was simple. She' d order unneeded cartridges and then ship them under a fake vendor name using the water district' s shipping system to a company in New Jersey that purchased and sold toner and ink online. Her fake vendor enabled McCain-Bray to misuse the water district’ s shipping system, so it even paid postage on the stolen cartridges. 

麦凯恩-布雷的舞弊很简单。她会订购不需要的墨盒，然后使用水区的运输系统以虚假的供应商名称将它们运送到新泽西州的一家公司，该公司在线购买和销售墨水和碳粉。她的虚假供应商使麦凯恩-布雷（McCain-Bray)能够滥用水区的运输系统，因此它甚至为被盗的墨盒支付了邮费。

Court records from McCain-Bray' s prosecution indicate that she also failed to report $2,339,156 in taxable income from cartridge sales between 2011 and 2015. That averages to $467,831 in stolen toner income per year injust those five years.

McCain-Bray起诉的法庭记录表明，她也没有报告2011年至2015年期间墨盒销售的应税收入为2,339,156美元。在这五年中，平均每年被盗碳粉收入为467,831美元。

McCain-Bray used the extra cash to remodel her home; travel; and buy gifts for herself, friends and family. Her hot streak ended when a coworker became suspicious about a package addressed to the fake vendor. That led to a review of purchasing records, and McCain-Bray could read the laser printing on the wall. She resigned in December 2015. McCain-Bray was eventually sentenced to 51 months in federal prison and ordered to pay back the entire $6.7 million.

麦凯恩-布雷用额外的钱改造了她的家；旅行；并为自己，朋友和家人购买礼物。当一位同事对寄给假供应商的包裹产生怀疑时，她的舞弊阴谋结束了。这导致了对购买记录的审查，麦凯恩-布雷可以阅读墙上的激光打印。她于2015年12月辞职。麦凯恩-布雷最终被判处在联邦监狱服刑51个月，并被命令偿还全部670万美元。

Employee theft is on the rise

The ACFE 2020 Report to the Nations shows that theft of noncash property, such as office supplies, rose from about 10% to 18% of fraud cases between 2002 and 2020. Those frauds had a nearly $80,000 median loss.

员工盗窃案呈上升趋势

ACFE2020年向各国提交的报告显示，在2002年至2020年期间，非现金财产（如办公用品）的盗窃率从约10%上升到18%。这些舞弊行为的中位数损失接近80,000美元。

So, what causes employees to steal? They might have reduced hours, pay or benefits. And the ACFE notes that employees who exhibit "excessive control issues or unwillingness to share duties” might be a fraud risk. (See the ACFE Report to the Nations.)

那么，是什么原因导致员工偷窃呢？他们可能减少了工作时间，工资或福利。ACFE指出，表现出"过度控制问题或不愿意分担职责"的员工可能存在舞弊风险。（见ACFE给各国的报告。）

Revenge or "seeking justice" can be a reason for stealing at work. Perhaps a fraudster has received a poor evaluation from management and is concerned about losing theirjob, or they see no opportunity for advancement, hence their revenge. Maybe they feel their hard work has gone unnoticed and underappreciated, hence theirjustice seeking.

报复或"寻求正义"可能是在工作中偷窃的理由。也许舞弊者从管理层那里得到的评价很差，担心失去工作，或者他们看不到晋升的机会，因此他们进行了报复。也许他们觉得自己的辛勤工作被忽视了、被低估了，因此他们寻求正义。

However, simple greed and the opportunity of easy money often can be the determining factors at work. Based on the McCain-Bray story, fraudsters can make a lot of cash by selling stolen office supplies. Keeping these motives in mind, let’ s focus on why one mundane and ubiquitous item — toner — seems to stand out in the supply cabinet as thejackpot of office supply theft.

然而，简单的贪婪和轻松赚钱的机会往往是工作的决定性因素。根据麦凯恩-布雷的故事，舞弊者可以通过出售被盗的办公用品来赚取大量现金。牢记这些动机，让我们专注于为什么一种平凡而无处不在的物品-碳粉-似乎在供应柜中脱颖而出，成为办公用品盗窃的头奖。

Why toner and ink?

Not all office supplies are equal in the eyes of a person looking to make an easy buck. Printer toner and ink are particularly prone to theft partially because of their relatively small size. Like all the other supplies an office consumes, printing supplies aren' t always looked after with the same level of scrutiny as the actual printers. This doesn' t make much sense when you think about it. After all, what’ s easier to stuff in a backpack 一 a desk printer or a cartridge of ink?

为什么选择墨水和碳粉？

在一个希望轻松赚钱的人来说，并非所有的办公用品都是平等的。打印机墨水和碳粉特别容易被盗，部分原因是它们的尺寸相对较小。与办公室消耗的所有其他耗材一样，打印耗材并不总是像实际打印机那样受到同等程度的审查。当你想到它时，这没有多大意义。毕竟，什么更容易塞进背包里——桌面打印机还是墨盒？

Also, most employees' only interaction with the printer and ink world is the five seconds it takes to make a copy or retrieve a document. So, fraudulent office-supply purchasing agents or others can excuse excessive toner use to their organizations by saying, "Wejust use a lot of ink."

此外，大多数员工与打印机和墨水世界的唯一互动是复印或检索文档所需的五秒钟。因此，舞弊性的办公用品采购代理或其他人员可以通过说"我们只是使用大量墨水"来为他们的组织过度使用碳粉找借口。

Printer toner and ink are also popular theft targets because of their high retail prices and ease of resale. They’ re so expensive because many manufacturers sell their printers at cost or a loss with the hope of locking users into buying their toner or ink, which is how they make their profit. It' s not uncommon to spend more on toner after only a couple refills than on the printer that uses it.

打印机墨水和碳粉也是受欢迎的盗窃目标，因为它们的零售价格高，转售方便。它们之所以如此昂贵，是因为许多制造商以成本或亏损的价格出售打印机，希望锁定用户购买他们的碳粉或墨水，这就是他们获利的方式。在几次补充后，在碳粉上花费比在使用它的打印机上花费更多并不罕见。

Costly cartridge fun facts: According to PC World, ink can go for $22 per quarter ounce, which is pricier than Russian caviar; and a New York Times economist found that printer ink was priced at about $4,731 a gallon. The price-to-size ratio is great if you' re looking to steal from work. (See Irate over Ink, by Tom Spring, PC World, Feb. 5, 2004; and Why Printer Ink is the Other Black Gold, by Robert Siegel and Audie Cornish, NPR, May 24, 2012.)

昂贵的墨盒趣闻：根据PC World的说法，墨水每季度可以卖22美元，比俄罗斯鱼子酱贵；《纽约时报》的一位经济学家发现，打印机墨水的价格约为每加仑4,731美元。如果你想从工作中偷窃，那么价格与尺寸的比例是很好的。（参见《Irate over Ink》，作者：TomSpring,PCWorld,2004年2月5日;以及《为什么Printer Ink is the Other Black Gold》，Robert Siegel 和 Audie Cornish,NPR,2012年5月24日。）

Gone are the resale days of dark alleys and trench coats laden with stolen goods. The ease and ubiquity of e-commerce has resulted in new outlets for people to fence stolen items as easily as non-fraudsters perusing Amazon. Some grey market websites are dedicated to selling printer toner and ink. They provide instant offers and resell them at a markup that' s still well below the retail price of new toner and ink. The transaction isjust a FedEx shipment and PayPal transfer away.

黑暗的小巷和风衣装满赃物的转售日子已经一去不复返了。电子商务的易用性和普遍性为人们提供了新的渠道，让人们可以像非舞弊者仔细阅读亚马逊一样轻松地保护被盗物品。一些灰色市场网站致力于销售打印机墨水和碳粉。他们提供即时优惠，并以仍远低于新墨水和碳粉零售价的加价转售。该交易只是联邦快递发货、转账。

Disappearing ink happens more than you think

So, is employee toner theftjust a Vegas problem because "what happens there only happens there?” Well, it turns out toner and ink cartridge theft occurs across the world. Where there' s an aggrieved employee and weak controls, toner theft can follow.

消失的墨水比您想象的要多

那么，员工墨粉盗窃只是拉斯维加斯的问题，因为"那里发生的事情只发生在那里吗？好吧，事实证明，墨水和碳粉盗窃在世界各地都发生。如果员工心灰意冷，控制力较弱，则可能会发生碳粉盗窃。

A municipal employee from San Diego County stole $360,000 in ink cartridges between 2007 and 2012 and sold them to an online ink and toner marketplace. For his efforts, he received a three-yearjail sentence. (See County worker loses benefits for stealing, by Jeff McDonald, The San Diego Union-Tribune, Dec. 5, 2013.)

圣地亚哥县的一名市政雇员在2007年至2012年期间偷走了36万美元的墨盒，并将其出售给在线墨水和墨粉市场。由于他的努力，他被判处三年徒刑。（参见《县工人因偷窃而失去福利》，杰夫•麦克唐纳著，《圣地亚哥联合论坛报》，2013年12月5日。）

A former municipal Philadelphian mail room clerk received two years in prison for stealing $1,368,091 worth of ink and toner cartridges in six years. Like McCain-Bray, he managed to use the city' s UPS account to ship his stolen ink and toner to his co-conspirators. Records show he made $545,412 from the sales. That means he gotjust under 40% of retail value for his hot toner and ink. It seems like a steep discount, but then again, it was all profit. (See U.S. Department of Justice release, June 9, 2015.)

一名前费城市政收发室职员因在六年内偷走价值1,368,091美元的墨水和碳粉盒而被判入狱两年。像麦凯恩-布雷一样，他设法利用该市的UPS账户将他被盗的墨水和碳粉运送给他的同谋。记录显示，他从销售中赚了545,412美元。这意味着他的墨水和碳粉获得了不到40%的零售价值。这似乎是一个巨大的折扣，但话说回来，这都是利润。（参见美国司法部新闻稿，2015年6月9日。）

Owners of a Florida furniture store opened two ghost companies that leased Xerox printers. The leases came with seemingly unlimited toner replacement. The fraudsters would order more cartridges than the printers needed and then resell them. They eventually worked themselves up to at least 63 Xerox machines so they could order and resell toner in bulk.

佛罗里达州一家家具店的老板开设了两家幽灵公司，租赁施乐打印机。租约附带了看似无限的碳粉更换。舞弊者会订购比打印机所需的更多的墨盒，然后转售。他们最终将自己加工了至少63台施乐机器，以便批量订购和转售碳粉。

They sold enough to receive about $11 million from one buyer in Miami. They were prosecuted for stealing approximately $24 million in toner from Xerox in a scheme that lasted from 2008 until 2013. If the $11 million is roughly their total gains from the sales, then these guys got an impressive 46% of retail value for their stolen toner. That’ s a solid step up from the Philadelphia employee. (See Xerox scam nets Haynes Brothers furniture family members prison time, by Frank Fernandez, The Daytona Beach News- Journal, July 29, 2019.)

他们的销售额足够从迈阿密的一位买家那里收到大约1100万美元。他们因从施乐公司窃取了大约2400万美元的碳粉而被起诉，该计划从2008年持续到2013年。如果1100万美元大致是他们从销售中获得的总收益，那么这些家伙从被盗的碳粉中获得的零售价值达到了令人印象深刻的46%。这是费城员工迈出的坚实一步。（参见施乐骗局网海恩斯兄弟家具家庭成员入狱时间，弗兰克费尔南德斯，代托纳比奇新闻杂志，2019年7月29日。）

Guarding against toner and ink theft

How do you prevent your organization from being the next toner donor to an aspiring office supply dealer? We' ve identified several things you can do to lessen the chances your toner ends up on the internet.

防止墨水和碳粉被盗

您如何防止您的组织成为有抱负的办公用品经销商的下一个碳粉捐赠者？我们已经确定了您可以采取的几项措施，以减少墨粉最终进入互联网的机会。

We have two general recommendations before we get to the inky specifics. First, fight toner and all other types of fraud with a fraud-reporting hotline. As detailed in the Report to the Nations, 43% of workplace frauds are discovered through tips. That' s, by far, the largest method for discovering workplace frauds. Also, asset misappropriation is the most common workplace fraud 一 representing 86% of frauds. Add those up and a fraud hotline will help fight toner and ink theft.

在进入墨水细节之前，我们有两个一般性建议。首先，通过舞弊举报热线打击碳粉和所有其他类型的舞弊行为。正如《致各国的报告》中详述的那样，43%的工作场所舞弊是通过举报发现的。到目前为止，这是发现工作场所舞弊的最大方法。此外，资产挪用是最常见的工作场所舞弊-占舞弊行为的86%。将这些加起来，舞弊热线将有助于打击墨水和碳粉盗窃。

Secondly, ensure your organization has adequate separation of duties. All the cited fraudsters took advantage of their authority for ordering and receiving of goods.

其次，确保您的组织具有足够的职责分离。所有被引用的舞弊者都利用他们的权力订购和接收货物。

This is so simple, but likely none of the victimized entities took the time to compare their toner purchases with their paper purchases.

这很简单，但可能没有一个受害实体花时间将他们购买的碳粉与购买的纸张进行比较。

Toner, of course, is only used to print on paper, so anyone spending more money on toner should see a matching increase for paper. Search for a period in your purchase records when toner purchases increased. It’ s time to investigate if you don' t see a matching pattern in paper purchases.

当然，碳粉仅用于在纸上打印，因此任何在碳粉上花费更多钱的人都应该看到纸张的相应增加。在购买记录中搜索碳粉购买量增加的时间段。现在是时候调查一下您是否在纸质购买中没有看到匹配的模式了。

Take these next steps if you' ve found some evidence of suspicious purchasing. If your potential toner thief is as bold as some of those above, they might be using your entity' s shipping function to mail toner that was formerly yours. Review your shipping records for new addresses and new vendors.

如果您发现一些可疑购买的证据，请采取这些后续步骤。如果您的潜在碳粉窃贼与上述某些人一样大胆，则他们可能正在使用您实体的运输功能来邮寄以前属于您的碳粉。查看新地址和新供应商的运输记录。

If you' re concerned with purchasing records, you might need to start looking into the employee who orders the ink. Review physical entry records like badge-swipe data.

如果您担心购买记录，则可能需要开始查看订购墨水的员工。查看实际输入记录，如刷卡数据。

Employees who are over-purchasing and then stealing ink want to avoid attention as much as possible when they remove toner from the premises or ship it to their buyers. Look for the suspected employee arriving at work unusually early or staying late. Computer log-on records might also help you identify unusual working patterns if physical access records aren' t available.

过度购买然后偷墨水的员工希望在从场所取出墨粉或将其运送给买家时尽可能避免引起注意。寻找异常早到或迟到的可疑员工。如果物理访问记录不可用，计算机登录记录还可能有助于您识别异常的工作模式。

Once you identify a subject employee, review their web-browser history and do a keyword search of their work emails. Look for terms like pre-owned, used, toner, ink, cartridge, the brand of printer you have, plus the names of ink and toner resellers. Review their browser history for resellers and marketplaces like eBay, craigslist and Facebook Marketplace.

确定问题员工后，查看他们的Web浏览器历史记录并对其工作电子邮件进行关键字搜索。查找二手、二手、碳粉、墨水、墨盒、您拥有的打印机品牌以及墨水和碳粉经销商的名称等术语。查看他们的浏览器历史记录，了解经销商和市场，如eBay, craigslist和Facebook Marketplace。

Interview your warehouse staffers if they do the initial delivery intake. Ask if any employees like their packages handled in particular ways or are extra demanding. Ask about standard practices for receiving and delivering packages and if anyone has requested exceptions to those practices. It might even be helpful to ask those employees who receive the most packages.

面谈您的仓库员工，如果他们做了最初的交货接收。询问是否有任何员工喜欢以特定方式处理的包裹，或者要求更多。询问接收和交付包裹的标准做法，以及是否有人要求这些做法的例外情况。询问那些收到最多包裹的员工甚至可能会有所帮助。

Don' t cry over spilled ink

Who knew ink and toner could be such fertile soil for fraud? If you take some of the simple steps we' ve shared, it should meaningfully reduce the likelihood your toner will end up for sale somewhere on the internet. And if these steps lead you to catch a toner fraudster magenta-handed, don' t feel too cyan. You' re not alone, and you probably won' t be the last to find your ink disappearing.

不要为溢出的墨水而哭泣

谁知道墨水和墨粉会成为舞弊的沃土？如果您采取我们分享的一些简单步骤，它应该会有意义地降低您的碳粉最终在互联网上的某个地方出售的可能性。如果这些步骤导致您抓住一个碳粉舞弊者，不要觉得太惊讶。您并不孤单，您可能也不会是最后一个发现墨水消失的人。

原文链接:https://www.fraud-magazine.com/article.aspx?id=4295012557