There’s a new way to catch dishonest employees who try to bilk their employers out of money:
Coming across a public confession on the Internet.
Several companies have recently used info found on sites like Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn to fight fraudulent workers’ compensation claims.
Sometimes, employees will blatantly brag about fooling companies. More often, though, they’ll describe strenuous activities they’ve recently participated in (playing sports, for example) while they’re supposedly too injured to work. For example:
- A Los Angeles-area warehouse worker filed a work-related back injury claim — but then posted on Facebook about bowling tournaments he’d competed in, after the injury.
- Dollar Tree had paid out over $100,000 over a year and a half to an employee with back problems. Her MySpace page listed a side job as a wedding photographer. Suspicious, the company sent representatives to conduct surveillance, and the employee was spotted lugging heavy camera equipment with no signs of back pain.
- Claims investigation service GlobalOptions Group even reports finding an employee who posted videos of himself competing in a rodeo while he was supposedly too injured to get out of bed.
