Our parent company FeedbackRocket.com is an award-winning HR tech company started in 2011 that has pioneered anonymous interactive chat functionality in the HR space with anonymous 360 degree surveys, climate surveys and more.
FraudCracker and EthicsDefender are revolutionary FeedbackRocket products that use the same anonymous interactive chat technology, but in the fraud- and unethical behaviour spaces, respectively.
What problem are you trying to solve?
Fraud and ethics violations are massive problems worldwide. Fraud hits over 80% of companies. On average, companies lose 5% of turnover to fraud.
Most companies do nothing about fraud and ethical wrongdoing. And most of the time, these go totally undetected. Employees know whistleblowers very often get victimised. Or they don’t think anything will be done about it, when they do report it. So they keep quiet.
The current approaches such as phone hotlines can work. But the problem is that employees don’t believe they are 100% anonymous – their voices and phone numbers can be recognised, and the calls are recorded.
Also, staff cannot anonymously discuss the issue further, nor can they provide evidence. On top of this, hotlines can be expensive because they need staff 24/7, and you need to pay for a phone hotline in each and every country you operate in.
How are you solving that problem?
FraudCracker.com and EthicsDefender are cutting-edge, online anti-wrongdoing tools that solve all these problems, and meet the legal requirements for companies and/or government organisations to have a whistleblowing system.
They enable your staff to report and discuss fraud and wrongdoing safely and anonymously online with authority figures such as the CFO or HR manager, and to upload evidence. These can be videos, documents, voicenotes and pictures.
The authority figures can have a back-and-forth follow-up conversation with the whistleblower, ask them questions and get proof from them, all while they are completely anonymous.
In 2020, we developed a browser push notification system that allows people to report and discuss wrongdoing completely anonymously with these authority figures, without disclosing any personal information whatsoever.
They don’t need to give their email, phone number or any identifying information. Our tools don’t store their IP address or IMEI number, so are totally anonymous. This cutting-edge technology gives whistleblowers the highest level of protection against victimisation.
How has the pandemic impacted your company?
When the pandemic hit in 2020, initially, we didn’t know what tomorrow would look like, or if we’d make it through to the other side, and many companies reacted like deer in the headlights. We saw freezes on spending and hiring, and companies cancelled projects that had been given the go-ahead pre-pandemic.
However, as everyone adjusted, we saw the pendulum slowly swing to the new normal, not quite where it used to be, but where companies realized that business needed to carry on, even with many of us working from home.
Luckily through all this, FraudCracker and EthicsDefender stayed strong, because we provide a valuable service that companies still need, pandemic or not, and we operate lean. So we weathered the storm and came out stronger. Many companies were not so lucky.
Where do you see your company going in 5 years?
South Africa, as one of the corruption hotspots of the world, has been a great testing ground for us, and we have built a strong portfolio of listed clients. Now the next goal is to take FraudCracker and EthicsDefender to a global audience. Fraud and ethics violations are big hot buttons for companies worldwide.
Many countries like the USA, Canada, UK, South Africa, Japan, New Zealand and Australia, have laws protecting whistleblowers. Some of these, like the USA and South Africa, take it one step further by requiring companies to set up whistleblowing systems that allow people to report wrongdoing safely and anonymously. With our cutting-edge, anonymous interactive chat technology, FraudCracker and EthicsDefender are uniquely positioned to meet this need.
How do people get involved/buy into your vision?
Is fraud eating into your profits? Is your company looking for a ground-breaking whistleblowing tool that enables your employees and customers to speak up about ethical wrongdoing safely and anonymously, without fear of victimization? Contact us today and let’s see how we can help you.
