Illegal Client Poaching | Competition Fraud

Particularly in a technology hub such as Dortmund, the criminal offence of industrial espionage is booming. Internal company information is spied upon by means of bugging technology, hacker attacks or by infiltrating employees into competing companies. Moreover, there are employees who pursue a double strategy and allow themselves to be bribed by competitors in exchange for the disclosure of information or even acts of sabotage to the detriment of their employers. In all such cases of competition fraud, unlawful client poaching, sabotage or information theft, the commercial detectives of Kurtz Investigations Dortmund are available to assist affected companies: +49 231 8401 0065.

Thanks to Client Database: Poaching from a Former Employer

Using confidential internal information of a former employer for one’s own benefit after termination of employment and thereby deliberately disadvantaging the company concerned constitutes a serious breach of employment law. A case example: Mr Muster (all names changed) had been dismissed by his employer, Müller KG, for expense fraud. Nevertheless, a former colleague, Ms Möglich, continued to supply him with information from within the company. For example, she copied the job sheets of the field representatives for him, enabling Mr Muster to telephone the customers scheduled to be visited in the coming days and weeks and to bring forward the appointments. On the telephone, he unabashedly identified himself as an employee of Müller KG and arranged short-notice appointments with the customers.

In the ensuing period, the employees of Müller KG were surprised that their long-standing regular customers required no goods or stated that they had already placed sufficient orders during the most recent visit. A comparison with the order records revealed that something could not be correct; however, the staff only discovered the true cause when two customers reported that they had been visited only a few days earlier by a field representative and had placed fairly substantial orders at that time. Whereas during previous surveillance operations by Kurtz Detective Agency Dortmund Mr Muster had proven to be an exceedingly indolent employee, he now displayed great enthusiasm, as the proceeds naturally flowed directly into his own pocket.

Fraudster Falls into Trap Set by Dortmund Detectives

Mr Müller, the proprietor of the affected company, immediately contacted our detective agency in Dortmund by telephone, with whom he had already cooperated very successfully on several occasions. In the present case, someone must have obtained knowledge of Müller KG’s customer data; Mr Müller’s suspicion was immediately directed at the recently dismissed Mr Muster, although he could not explain how the latter had obtained details of customer appointments arranged after his departure from the company. Together with the managing director, our detectives from Dortmund devised an operational plan to set a trap for Mr Muster: the employees of Müller KG were to telephone those customers due to be visited within the next three months; several of these customers had already been contacted by Mr Muster and had arranged appointments with him, and he had already visited some of them and secured orders. Those whom he had not yet visited were asked by our commercial detectives from Dortmund for their assistance, and several agreed.

As a result, in the following week Mr Muster visited a female customer and pretended that he was still employed by Müller KG. After the customer had placed her order, he had her sign the order form; however, no company name was stated on the document. Subsequently, the former field representative proceeded to another customer who had likewise agreed to assist Müller KG in exposing the fraudster. Mr Muster followed the same procedure with this customer. Once this had occurred, Mr Müller and our Dortmund detectives emerged from the adjoining room and requested that Mr Muster hand over the order documents. Further similar cases were proven against the perpetrator in the same manner. Our experienced investigators documented the events in a manner admissible in court, and Mr Muster was sentenced by a court to pay a fine and to provide compensation to Müller KG. Furthermore, the court ordered that, in the event of any repetition, he would be required to pay substantial damages to Müller KG for each individual offence. On the basis of the evidence provided by Kurtz Investigations Dortmund and the slightly mitigating statement made by Mr Muster, Ms Möglich was also convicted of aiding and abetting competition fraud and was required to leave Müller KG.

Note

In order to safeguard discretion as well as the personal rights of clients and subjects, all names and locations in this case report have been altered beyond recognition.