News

_{14th December 2009}

You placed your claim with a collection agency. They've done their best to collect, but the debtor just isn'™t budging. They tell you that your only option is filing a law suit. That's going to cost you some out-of-pocket expense for court costs and possibly non-contingent suit fees.

ABC-Amega'™s Vice President, International and Corporate Quality, Robert Tharnish, suggests you get the answer to the following ten questions before making this important decision.

How do you decide whether or not to sue?

1. Is your claim large enough to sue?
Most attorneys in the United States will not file a collection law suit under $1,000 or even $2,500. It's just not worth their while, and most likely wouldn'™t be worth yours either.

2. Is the debtor still in business?
Seems like a no brainer. But if the firm is not in business, the assets have probably already been distributed and/or sold. Unless you have a personal guarantee from the owner or an officer, there'™s not going to be anything to collect on.

3. If the debtor is not a corporation, is there an address where Service of Process can be made?
In the United States, Service of Process is the procedure whereby the debtor is given notice of the legal filing. In the case of sole proprietorships and partnerships, service must be made at the owner's primary place of business or residence.

If the debtor is a corporation, service should be made on an officer of the company. However, if that'™s impossible for some reason, service can be made on the Secretary of State where the company is incorporated.

4. Does the debtor appear to have sufficient assets to satisfy a judgment if one is awarded?
Unless you simply want to make a point, or are hoping the debtor's business will pick up in the future, suing a debtor that doesn't have the ability to pay a judgment, even if you get one, may not be worth the time, effort and expense. However, some creditors will file suit just the same to get a judgment on record. In the U.S., the judgment will remain on file for 10 years and acts as a lien on any future assets.

5. Does the attorney (or your collection firm) have any previous experience with the debtor?
If they have, they may also have a good idea whether the debtor has enough assets to pay a judgment. Or, exactly what his modus operandi (method of operating) is. Some debtors won'™t pay until a legal action is filed against them. Then they turn around and either offer a settlement or just pay up.

6. Is the debtor disputing the account? Are you sure you'™re in the right?
If the debtor has any legitimate disputes of the account, you'™re generally better off accepting a settlement if one is offered. Disputes might relate to quality, timeliness of delivery, non-performance of the contract, pricing changes, etc.If the debtor feels he has a case, he might file a counter claim against you for damages. (See #8 below.)

7. Can you supply sufficient documentation to substantiate the debt?
Here'™s a list of the 5 basic things you must prove in court to have a chance of winning:
 - You received an order from the debtor.
 - You and the debtor agreed on a price for the merchandise or service to be provided.
 - You delivered the merchandise or provided the service.
 - You made a demand for payment.
 - No payment has been received.

8. Has the debtor threatened to file a counter claim (also called a countersuit)?
Defending against a counter claim can cost a lot of money and time. If you'™re not 100% sure that the debtor is wrong, and you are right, it'™s probably not worth taking the risk. A countersuit is considered a separate action. Although you can use the same attorney for the initial filing and to defend the countersuit, the attorney will charge separate hourly fees for handling the countersuit.Some debtors, even without legitimate disputes, will threaten or even actually file countersuits in an attempt to force you to back away from your lawsuit, or to accept a lower settlement.

9. Will you be able to supply a witness if one is required?
If your case does end up going to trial (most are settled out of court), you will be required to provide a witness. An affidavit or deposition will not suffice. Before turning down any settlement offer, be sure to figure the costs of providing a witness into your calculation of the costs involved in pursuing a trial.

10. Do the costs involved warrant filing a law suit?
Are they in line with what is owed? Generally, initial court costs should not exceed 10% of the value of the claim.Initial court costs generally include all of the filings required by the court to render a judgment. They usually do NOT include filing a Writ of Execution or any supplementary proceedings required to attempt collection, should the debtor choose to ignore the judgment.

_{(Source: www.credit-to-cash-advisor.com)}

It's time to admit that you are tied to your BlackBerry. You may be on vacation, but it's on. You may be taking a nap on a Saturday afternoon, yet it is still by your side. It's the reason that BlackBerrys have been called "Crackberrys." Perhaps every CIO ought to give it a second thought before handing out a BlackBerry to every IT employee. Do they really need it? Can they work without it? Blackberry addiction has caused problems both on the worksite and off. Maybe it's stressing you out. Maybe it's keeping your workers from giving 100 percent to their jobs.

But there are some ideas that you can use to keep BlackBerry usage under control. In Canada, for example, Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC), a government agency, has issued a directive to employees banning them from using BlackBerrys for work related matters at night, during weekends and on holidays because workers' work/life balance is being thrown off balance.

In Chicago, the general manager at the Sheraton Chicago recently cracked down on his own BlackBerry use. "If you really get addicted the way I was, it's a problem," said Rick Ueno, general manager of the Sheraton Chicago Hotel & Towers. "I would wake up in the middle of the night to get a drink of water and have to check my messages. I'd check [the BlackBerry] at traffic lights and everywhere else." Ueno decided to retire his Blackberry because it was stressing him out. Now he finds that he is more creative at the workplace. It might be time to do your employees a favor. Make them at least partially BlackBerry free and see what happens at your workplace. And let us know if it works wonders for you or if your workplace is still the same pressure cooker it has always been.

_{Read more: http://www.fiercecio.com/story/does-your-blackberry-stress-you-out/2008-02-25#ixzz0bFwtSHDa}

_{By Stan Stahl, Ph.D. & Kimberly Pease, CISSP, Citadel Information Group, Inc.}

Sally, the accounting manager of Acme Enterprises, a medium-sized business, regularly checked her Facebook account while at work. One day she received an email. The email said that a long-lost friend, Bob, had added her as a friend in Facebook. There was a link in the email for Sally to follow to confirm the friend request. Sally clicked the link. Over the next week, cyber-thieves withdrew nearly $1,000,000 from her employers' bank account.

Welcome to the newest nastiest twist in cybercrime.

You see, the email wasn't from Bob and the link didn't go back to Facebook. Bob's on Facebook just like Sally is. That's how the cyber-thieves found them and discovered that they might know each other. That's also where they learned that Sally worked in the accounting department.

After that it was a simple matter to set the trap by sending Sally a friend request from Bob. "How great," thought Sally, "an email from Bob. Let me just follow this link and we can be friends again."

Link followed. Trojan horse installed. $1,000,000 stolen.

According to Breach Security, the number of web security incidents was up 30 percent in the first half of 2009. And social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace and Twitter were the target of 19% of all attacks, more than any other category. That's a big change from last year's report when government networks were the most often attacked and social networks weren't even on the list.

Making matters worse, many of these attacks succeed by taking advantage of missing patches and using obscure technology like "0-day exploits" that get past traditional antivirus and antispyware defenses.

As if that's not bad enough, businesses shouldn't expect their banks to cover losses. Regulation E of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) stipulates consumers are protected by cyber crime involving their banks. The FDIC regulation does not cover businesses, however.

Here are five things you can do to inoculate your business against social network attacks:

1. Prohibit use of social network sites from the office. These sites can be blocked at the corporate firewall. This can become particularly challenging if employees work remotely as it may not be feasible to block access to social networks from home computers. Making matters worse, Trojan horses are like communicable diseases and Sally's work-at-home computer can be infected from her son's. That's why the next four recommendations are so important.

2. In addition to antivirus / antispyware defenses, add advanced defenses like intrusion detection and prevention designed to block internet-based attacks like the link in Sally's email and 0-day exploits.

3. Your IT staff can block known internet-based attacks by comparing links against a database of known bad links like www.stopbadware.org/home/reportsearch.

4. Keep your systems patched. This means not just Windows patching but all your applications, those you know about - like Office and Adobe Reader - and those you might not even know about - like Flash and Java. This also includes your Macintosh computers as they are every-bit as vulnerability-prone as Windows PCs.

5. Finally, don't expect to rely on technology alone. Users are often the weakest link so it's very important to train them to detect the subtle signs of an attack so they can keep from becoming victims. They also need to be given guidance on what information is safe to put on a social networking site. Sally put a big bulls-eye on her back when she wrote that she works in Acme's accounting department.

There is no one thing you can do to keep from being victimized from a social network attack. Even doing all five of these isn't a guarantee, just like a flu shot doesn't guarantee you won't get the flu. But if you are diligent you can significantly affect the odds and this should be your objective.

_{(Source: CitadelOnSecurity.blogspot.com)}

_{by Dennis Lojeck, Director, Client Relations, ABC-Amega Inc.}

Identity Fraud and Corporations

With statistics steadily increasing from year to year, identity theft is a serious and growing problem in the US and worldwide.In an effort to provide some measure of protection for individuals at risk for identity theft, the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC), together with the US Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA), the US Federal Reserve System and other US monetary agencies have issued so called "Red Flag Rules".

Red Flags Rule

As part of the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions (FACT) Act of 2003, these regulations (the Red Flags Rule) require financial institutions and creditors to develop and implement internal programs designed to prevent identity theft and to mitigate its results when identity theft occurs. The programs must effectively identify, detect and respond to "red flags" - indicators of possible identity theft. Red flags include patterns, practices and specific activities that have been known to be associated with identity theft.Red Flags programs, which must be in effect by November 1, 2009, are mandated for financial institutions, creditors, or any other entities holding a "transaction account" belonging to a consumer.

A financial institution is a state or national bank, a state or federal savings and loan association, a mutual savings bank, a state or federal credit union, or any other entity that holds a "transaction account" belonging to a consumer.

A transaction account (also referred to as a "covered account") is an account used for personal, family or household purposes that involves multiple payments or transactions. These include credit card accounts, checking accounts, negotiable order of withdrawal accounts, savings deposits subject to automatic transfers, mortgage loans, automobile loans, margin accounts, cell phone and utility accounts. "Covered accounts" also include any account for which there is a foreseeable risk of identify theft, ex. small business or sole propietorship accounts.

A creditor is any entity that regularly extends, renews or continues credit; any entity or that entity's assignee that regularly arranges for the extension, renewal, or continuation of credit. Accepting credit cards for payment does not by itself make an entity a "creditor" under these rules.

"Creditors" in this case include finance companies, automobile dealers, mortgage brokers, utility and telecommunications companies, etc.

Corporations are also at Risk of Identify Theft

While the focus of the Red Flags Rule is on consumers and most of us think of identity theft as a crime effecting individuals, businesses and corporations are by no means immune. There is an increasing threat to businesses, as false and fraudulent information is used to order and receive goods for which no subsequent payment is made and no avenue for collection is available. Experiences of some of ABC-Amega'™s 3rd-party collection clients, as well as anecdotal accounts from others in the worldwide business community, point to an explosion of corporate identity theft.

True Story

Most of us who extend credit would agree that we need to be vigilant against fraud. In general, we would consider an article like this as informative, timely, and relevant to our everyday activities. After reading, we would likely consider ourselves alerted to the dangers, and continue about our business with a sense of security. After all, we are all smart, experienced, and competent. We would intuitively know when we were being scammed. We'™d recognize the warning signs and take appropriate action. Right?

In an ideal world, maybe. But in today'™s environment, sometimes even the most savvy of credit professionals can become victims of identity scams. In fact, we recently encountered a couple of cases involving our 3rd party collection clients that illustrate this.One situation involved a domestic customer/debtor, the other an international client/creditor. Both involved identity fraud and had many other similarities as well. The creditors (our collection clients) were both organizations of size, scale, and sophistication. Nevertheless, both missed some "red flags" that may have warned them of fraud. These indicators were not glaringly obvious, but in hindsight, they were there to be seen, and they were overlooked. The thief'™s basic approach was the same in both cases.

The order appeared to come from a large, established company to which the seller/creditor had, in fact, tried to sell before. The name of the person placing the order was the name of an actual employee of that company. In fact, that name was even on the legitimate website of the company in question. Phone/fax numbers given were in the same area/country code as the actual company. The goods were ordered to be "drop shipped" to huge multi-national companies - whose names we all would recognize and be impressed by - but, at fictitious addresses.

And, while there was a detectable "red flag" in that the e-mail address given was a Google, Yahoo or other "generic" email address, and not linked to the servers of the companies supposedly ordering, that detail got lost in the others surrounding the order that all seemed to be accurate and real. The outcome: the vendor/creditor shipped the goods as requested, but when no payment was forthcoming and the accounts were placed for collection, it was discovered that no such order had been placed by any employee of the buyer company. Therefore, the account was uncollectable.

Conclusion

The pattern of including a lot of truth in the mix of information is a common characteristic of all fraud. And, in our experience, it is almost always an element in cases like those we'™ve discussed here. To protect your company from becoming a victim of identity fraud, you must be proactive. Set a strategy that includes approaching all credit sales with caution and a wary eye. Trust your professional experience. If something doesn't feel right about any order or new customer, take the time to look into them very closely.Want more information on the Red Flag Rules and what to watch for? Read Fighting Fraud with the Red Flags Rule - a How-To Guide for Business of the Federal Trade Commission. The page also includes other resources on identity theft and the Red Flags Rule.

Once you've determined that a prospective customer is creditworthy, how do you determine a reasonable initial credit limit based on the information you've gathered about the buyer?

There are three credit limit calculations that can help you determine an amount that is both fair and appropriate:

1. Net Worth Calculation:

Utilizing this calculation to assess a credit limit is in your best interest because it limits your exposure, that is, the amount you have "invested" in the customer. Calculate Net Worth by subtracting Total Liabilities from Total Assets. Both figures are found on the company's Balance Sheet. The credit limited is then based on a percentage of the customer's Net Worth. A good rule of thumb is to limit your initial credit offer to 10% of the buyer's net worth. If you prefer, you can offer 10% of his working capital, or 10% of his average monthly sales.

2. Trade Reference Calculation:

This calculation can be used to establish a credit limit comparable to what other creditors and/or competitors have granted. Calculate the median credit limit based on the credit limits offered by other creditors. If you are unable to determine these credit limits, use the buyer’s recent high credit figures. These should be available on independent credit reports and by contacting the buyer's trade references.

3. Needs-Based Calculation:

This calculation favors buyers and is based on providing them with a credit limit that will meet their needs relative to the terms granted. It amounts to simply giving the customer what he says he needs in the way of credit facilities.

Suggested Approach:

Apply each of the three calculations to the buyer and then take an average. This should come fairly close to providing a reasonable credit limit. You can then decide to raise or lower the limit based on any previous experience with the buyer, credit and trade references from other sources, suits or liens against the company, age of the financial information, and the current economic conditions in the buyer's industry and country.

Note: Once you establish a credit limit, don'™t treat it as if it were written in stone. You should consistently monitor the customer and, based on changing conditions and your ongoing experience, adjust the limit as necessary.

_{(Source: www.credit-to-cash-advisor.com )}

_{20th May 2009}

You might have noticed that we launched a new, satirical marketing campaign a couple of weeks ago to help bring attention to the important and increasingly difficult commercial accounts receivable management function. Now more than ever it is essential that organizations operate at peak performance across all levels of risk management, yet often times credit and collections functions are still viewed as back-office non-essential departments. Obviously this is not the case, especially in 2009.

In the world of "do more with less", we hope that "Collectile Dysfunction" added some comic relief to your increasingly busy and often stressful day. Whether you love it or hate it, laughed out loud or think it is just another juvenile stunt to get attention, there is common ground among credit and collections pros that companies now more than ever need to keep pace with the current economic challenge. I've been on the road visiting customers throughout the spring and every company lists off a common set of stress points:

* Increased DSO and delinquencies
* Increasing internal reporting requirements for lenders, senior management and auditors
* Layoffs throughout the finance organization, especially analyst and collectors
* Reduced budgets
* More time in court because of customer bankruptcies
* Added work of analyzing partners and suppliers
* More analysis of private company financials
* Higher than usual friction with sales
* Collections challenges as entire portfolios are becoming more risky
* Surprises in the portfolio as good customers are going bad

We reported just this week that the national percent past due average now stands at 12.95% with 40 states worsening month over month. Clearly, despite some well publicized "signs of improvement" businesses are still struggling to pay their bills in timely manner stressing the entire cash conversion cycle. To make matters worse the aggregate amount of US commercial A/R debt over 90 days past due has grown 15.4% over the last four months. This is a concern given the fact that the later the payment, the more likely the supplier will not be able to collect.

While the Collectile Dysfunction or the CD Campaign is a tongue and cheek approach, the message is clear and well known by credit and collection professionals-many organizations need help and need help now to regain control over their portfolio. This is not a criticism, but simply the current reality and result of long-term company cultural norms that tend to focus on near-term sales goals with little attention to the risk of being ultimately paid for their products and services. As result the upfront risk assessment and ongoing management of the A/R portfolio tends to be underfunded and under staffed.

Do any of the following sound like your company?

* Sales & senior management overriding credit line decisions
* Orders being released off credit hold to make a shipping deadline or quarterly number
* Auto setup of "courtesy credit lines" without credit providing guidance or input
* Credit decisions based on "personal" relationships or history rather than factual analysis
* Requests for modern software and information falling to the bottom of the IT & budget priority list

Perhaps one of the positive outcomes of the credit crunch and recession is that senior management is now increasingly listening to their A/R leadership while in boom times perhaps they did not-hopefully in an effort to eliminate their "CD" for good.

We are passionate about bringing attention to the often overlooked trade receivables side of the struggling US economy. If the CD campaign helps draw attention to the issue and gets you the support and tools you need most, we'™ve succeeded.

_{Source: http://blog.cortera.com/2009/05/20/collectile-dysfunction-what-were-we-thinking/}

22 February 2009, Alex Cot©

Over the last few weeks I have had the opportunity to participate in an industry credit group meeting both in the United States and in Europe. In both cases, the importance of these meetings was clear given the challenging economic environment. While attendance is down at some these meetings because of the well publicized cuts or complete freezes in corporate travel, I was still impressed at the level of continued participation and attendance. It is refreshing to see that senior management is still supportive of these meetings.

Are you getting pressure to cut back on these meetings? Is upper management questioning the value, given budget cuts in other areas? Here are some tips and benefits to help you justify attendance.

Key Benefits of Participation in a Credit Group

Transfer knowledge, new strategies, tips and best practices

· With collections activities up significantly and disputes on the rise credit groups provide the perfect setting for sharing best practices and successful credit, collections and risk management techniques (both new and old)

· Outside experts can also provide unique insights and additional support that are often more expensive to obtain for a single company (many experts will participate at no cost to promote their company or credentials to potential customers in the group). In my case I was invited last week to run a workshop and presented on Collecting in an Economic Downturn

· Attendees often learn from their peers about the latest technology, information, and scoring products

Trade experiences

· Providing your company'™s monthly trade experience information to your industry credit group (and all commercial credit bureaus) provides better transparency and has been shown to improve payment behavior

· Submitters often receive additional services such as credit scores, delinquency predictor scores or unique identifier information at no cost in return for providing their A/R experience

· In a live and confidential setting, sharing past facts on your experiences with customers provides unique commentary not found on a generic credit report

· Members benefit from the collective credit investigation capabilities of the entire group and their respective departments

· Benchmarking and industry trends, like those provided by Cortera, help members understand their performance versus their peers

Relationship building

· Long-term support of these groups builds invaluable relationships with your peers that helps protect the entire industry against fraud and frequent late payers

· Member sharing also helps build better information and technology solutions that are specific to the trade group

Member alerting

· The peer-driven, member alerting services provided by most credit groups are essential for communicating between meetings and ensuring the immediate flow of potential industry or customer risk. These services are only available to group members and cannot be purchased if you are not an active member

· Meeting hosts further expand this communication through delivering timely industry news, best-practices, and company-level insights to ensure regular knowledge transfer back to the credit group

Lowering Travel Costs

· Attend local regional meetings. These are often off-shoots of the national meetings and provide helpful member experience both locally and nationally

· Encourage members of the credit team to attend in their region and communicate to the national or global team

· Host meetings at your facilities to avoid hotel expenses

· Participate via conference call if you cannot attend in person

Have a tip or comment? Share it with the other ECF members; ecf@pandaforums.com

Amsterdam 13 August 2008 - In today's tight credit environment it is even more important than usual to stay on top of late paying customers. More and more purchasers are looking for opportunities to extend payment terms and for some this can mean finding excuses to either pay late or not at all. Over the years, Atradius Collections has heard just about all of them when collecting amounts due from debtors of its customers. Some of the classic or more common excuses for not paying invoices include:

* We haven't received the invoice
* Our terms are (30, 60) days
* We don'™t have a payment run until next month
* There are no cheque signatories available
* The cheque is in the post/The invoice has already been paid
* The goods were never delivered or the order was cancelled
* The goods/services were faulty or not as described
* The balance is incorrect and we are awaiting a credit note
* The goods have not been sold/buyer has not paid for the goods yet need sale proceeds to be able to pay
* The debtor is insolvent.

Although it happens rarely, some debtors still manage to surprise even us. These excuses have actually been used by debtors.

* It'™s not a valid debt as my vindictive ex wife ran off with the company credit card
* I just got back from my luxury holiday, it cost more than I thought so I no longer have the funds to pay
* I wanted to pay but all the invoices were in my briefcase, which was stolen on the street
* My wife has been kidnapped and I need the money to get her back.

There's no telling what you might hear when you call a customer about an outstanding invoice. This is particularly so for companies doing business internationally. But to maximise your chances of getting paid; timely reminders, persistence and the knowledge of the right responses to these and other potential objections or stall tactics are essential.