Janitors have access to virtually all areas of a building, including your office, when no one else is around. Your office is the center of your firm's brand, image and reputation in the community. Your office may be home to the firm's intellectual property, trade secrets, or proprietary information such as customer lists and price sheets. You may also keep the names, addresses, phone numbers, social security numbers and dates of birth of your clients and employees in your office. Is this information safe? What do you know about your office cleaner? Has your janitor been convicted of a crime of violence? Is your janitor an illegal or undocumented worker, a violent felon, a drug addict, a corporate spy, or an identity thief?
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A single case of identity theft could cost your firm thousands of dollars, thousands of hours of labor to fix, and cause enormous damage to your firm's brand, image and reputation among your customers and employees. Identity theft statistics are staggering. The Javelin Strategy and Research Center recently reported:
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• There were 10 million victims of identity theft in 2008 in the United States, a 22% increase over 2007
• 1 in every 10 U.S. consumers has been victimized by identity theft
• Up to 55% of victims take 4-12 months to correct the damage from identity theft
• In 2008, existing account fraud in the U.S. totaled billion
• The average victim loses between 1 and ,378 out-of-pocket trying to resolve identity theft
• 47% of victims have problems qualifying for a new loan
• 70% of victims encounter problems removing negative information from their credit reports
• Businesses across the globe lose 1 billion a year due to identity theft
• Stolen documents and wallets account for almost half of all identity theft (43%).
Office Cleaning - Who Is Walking Around Your Office After Dark?
Evidence developed during the past few years points to an unmistakable and irrefutable connection between illegal or undocumented workers employed as janitors, and identity theft and other crimes. The crime of identity theft is generally committed for two reasons; personal benefit or document fraud. There have been a number of stories in the media about janitors committing identity theft.
In Seattle, 2 janitors were accused of stealing the identities of 181 people and running up thousands of dollars in charges. The janitors said they stole the information by rummaging through company files, including personnel files. In Florida, a janitor was charged with stealing the identity of an attorney whose office he cleaned, selling shares of stock owned by the attorney, and running up ,000 in credit card charges.
The U.S. Attorney for the western district of Washington reported that 2 janitors, while employed at a janitorial company working at night in a U.S. Bank branch, stole information on more than 200 bank customers. Using that information, the janitors opened credit accounts in the customers' names, and signed up for on line banking. Using the credit card accounts, they purchased expensive items such as laptop computers, flat screen televisions and airline tickets. Using on line banking they paid their own bills and transferred funds to checking accounts that they then drained. They also submitted change of address requests on line so that the customers did not get their bank statements alerting them to the problem. The indictment charged the janitors with more than 0,000 in fraud.
While a significant portion of identity theft is committed for financial gain, identity theft is also perpetrated for the purpose collecting personal data to sell to document forgers or organized identify theft rings. In New York, a janitor at public radio station WNYC was charged with stealing a list of the station's donors and selling it to an identity theft ring.
The sad truth is that many cleaning contractors hire persons that they know, or should know, are illegal aliens. Many cleaning companies simply choose to accept identification documents presented by employment candidates at face value even when there is an obvious discrepancy. Failing to verify that employees are who they say they are and eligible for employment in the U.S. unnecessarily subjects building owners, managers and tenants to unacceptable risk of harm and potential legal liability. The seriousness of this risk is demonstrated by two recent cases.
In November, 2009, more than 1,200 janitors employed by a janitorial services contractor were fired in Minnesota when they were unable to provide the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement with proof of their legal status in the United States. The vast majority of the 1,200 fired workers turned out to be "undocumented." These illegal aliens may have committed several felonies: document fraud, perjury on an I-9 form, and identity theft if the social security number or other personally identifying information used by the illegal alien belonged to another person. By failing to verify that these persons were eligible for work in the United States, this cleaning contractor exposed its customers, including building owners, managers and tenants, to significant criminal and financial liability under the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986.
The Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, 8 U.S.C 1324a(1), specifically prohibits the hiring of an alien not authorized to legally work in the United States. A much lesser-known section of this law, 8 U.S.C 1324a(4), provides that an entity that uses a contract or subcontract to obtain the labor of an alien knowing that the alien is an unauthorized alien with respect to performing such labor, shall be considered to have hired the alien for employment in violation of law. WalMart Stores, Inc. was reminded of this law the hard way. While avoiding criminal charges, WalMart agreed to pay a record million in fines to the federal government to resolve charges alleging the employment of illegal aliens by the independent contractors WalMart retained to provide janitorial services. The investigation resulted in the arrests of over 350 allegedly illegal aliens. The cleaning contractors that hired the undocumented aliens and placed them in WalMart stores plead guilty to criminal immigration charges and agreed to pay a further total of million in fines.
While no one action, or series of actions, can ever provide 100% protection against identity theft or other crimes committed by a janitor, there are several actions that must be taken to mitigate risk in connection with signing a contract for janitorial services.
Due diligence. Investigate whether the cleaning contractor has ever been associated with hiring illegal aliens. The internet is a valuable tool in this regard. Search the internet under the name of the company and check the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement website. If a company has a history of hiring illegal immigrants, you would be well-advised to hire a different contractor.
Criminal Background Check. Make sure the cleaning contractor conducts an extensive criminal background check on all employees. Insist that appropriate language covering this point be included in your contract.
E-Verify. A criminal background check, without more, may be insufficient to detect persons with criminal records. Here's why. Some U.S. citizens, in order to hide extensive criminal histories, will provide a cleaning contractor with a fake name and false proof of identity. If a criminal background check is run using this fraudulent information, the results may come back showing no criminal history when in fact that person has an extensive criminal record. The Department of Homeland Security's E-Verify System confirms the identity of each employee by comparing information from the employee's I-9 form against 444 million records in the Social Security Administration database and 60 million records in the Department of Homeland Security's immigration databases. E-Verify allows the contractor to determine whether that person is who he says he is and confirms the reliability of the identifying information that will be submitted for the background check. In addition, E-Verify determines the eligibility of each employee to work in the United States. Research indicates that illegal immigrants generally are not "undocumented." They commonly possess bogus documents such as counterfeit social security cards, forged drivers licenses, fake "green cards," and phony birth certificates. Experts believe that approximately 75 percent of illegal aliens use counterfeit social security cards to obtain employment. The E-Verify System helps detect this fraud. Before signing any contract for cleaning services, make sure appropriate language requiring the use of E-Verify is included in the contract.
By following these simple suggestions, a building owner, manager or tenant can:
(1) significantly reduce the risk that a janitor employed by a cleaning service will engage in identity theft, corporate espionage, or other serious crimes against persons or property in facilities under their control,
(2) prevent cleaning service outages arising from having their cleaning contractor shut down, imprisoned or fined by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and
(3) avoid potential criminal liability and large civil fines arising from your cleaning contractor's illegal conduct.
Copyright 2010, James Cleaning Service, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Office Cleaning - Who Is Walking Around Your Office After Dark?
Jim Van Eman is the President of James Cleaning Service, LLC ("JCS"). JCS is a private, family-owned commercial cleaning company located in Rochester Hills, Michigan. JCS offers comprehensive cleaning solutions to small and medium-sized enterprises, facilities and offices in Oakland and Macomb County, Michigan. Communities served by JCS include Auburn Hills, Troy, Rochester, Rochester Hills, Utica, Shelby Township, Macomb Township, Clinton Township, Sterling Heights, Washington Township and more. Visit our website http://www.jamescleaningservice.com.