The use of money laundering to allow illegal money to be run through legitimate and sometimes unsuspecting businesses has grown due to advances in technology.

Fraud is often committed by business owners who misreport financial transactions by "playing with their books."

Mail and wire fraud involves crimes that violate federal laws because the frauds utilize the United States Postal Service or other interstate means of communication.

Due to the nature of the insurance business, the opportunities for fraud are legion. Pay particular attention to insurance claims relating to autos, health, worker's compensation, and, workplace accidents.

Employee theft of inventory and supplies, and the unauthorized use of equipment, although not as frequent as cash theft, can be a major loss for many small businesses. In some cases, a non-employee accomplice may be involved, including a dishonest vendor.

You can reduce employee fraud by controlling tempting environments and implementing internal control processes to deter wrongdoing.

External frauds commonly originate with or involve customers and vendors. Common frauds include check and credit card frauds, shoplifting, vendor and telemarketing frauds, and fraud perpetuated by ID theft.

Phony employee disbursements pose a significant fraud problem for businesses. These practices include frauds such as padded expense accounts, check tampering, payroll fraud, and false employee insurance claims.

Whether committed by employees, vendors or unknown individuals, the need to protect your business from fraud is an unpleasant fact of life for the small business owner.

Aggressive use of asset protection strategies is not illegal. However, crossing the line into fraud is illegal. If you want your transfers to hold up, you must avoid a finding of constructive or actual fraud. A finding of actual fraud often hinges on your motive, your financial condition and your attempts to conceal the transfer.

Virtual crimes are committed with increasing frequency as computers and the Internet are an integral part of people's personal and professional lives. Identifying and preventing cybercrime and Internet fraud should be on every business owner's radar.