According to a poll conducted by Employers, small business owners are especially concerned that their workers might fake an injury to get workers’ compensation. The poll found that 13 percent are worried one of their workers might commit fraud, 24 percent have installed cameras and surveillance to monitor employees at work and 21 percent are not sure that they could recognize workers’ compensation fraud even if it was occurring. While employee fraud incidents are relatively small compared to other kinds of fraud (misclassification being a big one in the news lately), it is still something nobody wants going on in their business and employers should certainly arm themselves with some knowledge about employee fraud.

The survey asked business owners what they thought likely signs of work comp fraud were, and over half responded with indicators like the worker has a history of claims, there was no one else around when the accident occurred, the employee delayed reporting the injury, or the employee recently changed their employment status before reporting an injury.

The vice president of fraud investigations at Employers, Ranney Pageler, said that discovering fraud came from red flags during the claims process, tips from co-workers or friends, or footage from onsite cameras. Pageler said some red flags to look for during the claims process are employees who used fake social security numbers or had undisclosed conditions.

Pageler said in addition to the signs identified by many small business owners, things like early Monday morning reports are suspicious, as well as claimants who tell a story different than what was reported or are hard to get in touch with.

Not only is employee fraud hurtful to the employer because they thought they had a trustworthy worker and they did not, it hurts them because they’re paying out for that fake claim and it can increase their workers’ comp premium after the fact.

It is important to note that employee fraud accounts for a small amount of workers’ comp claims, and the first priority of the employer should be to protect their workers to make sure no real injuries occur.