Common Fraud Schemes

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Download and share the following fraud posters for your use in increasing awareness at your workplace of how to identify and report fraud, waste and abuse.

Contractors misrepresent that they are competing against each other when they actually agree to cooperate on the winning bid to increase job profit.

A government contracting or oversight official has an undisclosed financial interest in a contractor or consultant, resulting in an improper contract award or inflated costs.

A contractor misrepresents who performed the work in order to appear to be in compliance with contract goals for involvement of minority/women-owned businesses.

A contractor requests to be paid for the removal of more construction debris than was actually removed.

A contractor misrepresents the cost of performing work by secretly paying a fee for being awarded the contract and, therefore, inflating the cost to the government.

A contractor misrepresents how much construction material was used on a job in order to be paid for more material than was actually used.

A contractor misrepresents the type or quality of product used in order to reduce costs for construction materials.

A contractor misrepresents the results of quality control tests in order to limit costs or increase profits, earn contract incentives, or avoid project shutdown.

A contractor misrepresents the distribution of employee labor in order to charge for more work hours, or a higher overhead rate to increase profit.

A contractor compensates a government official in exchange for obtaining contracts or permitting overcharges.

General fraud
 

A moving company or broker misrepresents the cost of moving consumer household goods through a "low-ball" estimate to lure customers and then withholds the customer's goods unless an additional, exorbitant sum is paid above the quoted price.