How to recognize a “rat” in a company. How to catch a runaway rat? The best way is prevention

There is a curious fact that is common to the vast majority of large and small companies. Or rather, the business owners themselves. Many of them, being quite savvy in business and life, are far from naive people and allow cases of ordinary theft in their enterprises. And moreover, many of them catastrophically cannot admit even the slightest thought that they are being deceived or led by the nose. Who likes it more? In relation to someone, it is easy to assume such a moment. But to steal from me? No! This is impossible.

I would like to give a short-term example: at one enterprise, during an audit, a loss-breakeven schedule was calculated, and as a result of analytical and financial calculations, a huge shortage was discovered. The unfortunate director at first could not come to his senses, then he argued for several hours in a row and demanded that everything be double-checked, but the truth did not want to take hold in his head. He absolutely could not admit such a simple thought that this was the work of his own staff.
Or another similar case. At some financial company deputy general director literally caught red-handed, he entered into agreements at favorable interest rates, the excess of which, of course, ended up in his bank accounts. Upon learning of this, the director experienced an unprecedented shock; it was a break in the pattern in his head: “This cannot be! Look at this man! How can such a respectable and honest family man steal?” Well then. Being ignorant is sometimes the best option.
So, the main question that arises while reading? How to avoid this? First of all, remove rose-colored glasses and look at the world with sober eyes. People can and know how to deceive, and often do it with great pleasure. Don't think that you are another option and this won't happen to you. Forewarned is forearmed, let that be your motto.

Philosophy of “rats in company”

Who among us has not heard about the world of thieves, many of you have probably read crime novels and somewhere even admired the romance of thieves. From this cruel criminal world The concept of “thief-in-law” has come to us. This special category people with definite but firm principles. But today's talk is not about them.
We will talk about a slightly different category of people - let's call them “thieves-in-company”. So, let's not be afraid to call a spade a spade.

Who are they, what is this category of people?

From the name itself it is clear that an employee steals products, money, materials or equipment of his own organization, takes bribes and kickbacks. Such a person writes incorrect invoices or conducts double accounting, undermining her solvency. And with all this, he nobly believes in his lofty Robinhood goals! After all, he does not rob the poor, on the contrary, he steals from the rich. A thief, according to him own opinion, doesn’t even steal, but takes what is honestly due to him. The owner of the company is an “exploiting class” and a “white bone” who profits from the slave labor of people, and it is absolutely impossible to make contact with him, so punish and dispossess them, as in the old days good times October Revolution.
Any business owner must understand: he does not owe anyone anything. He created jobs and “leased” them to employees, and now it is up to them whether they can pay the “rent” and remain in the black—that is, earn an income. If their ability to work is only enough to pay “rent” and business expenses, then who is to blame for this except themselves?

Signs of “rats in company.”

Let’s imagine that an unpleasant situation has happened and a thief has settled in your ranks.” What will he start doing first? Thieves can act autonomously, or they can begin to systematically and consistently create a circle of close associates around themselves, sometimes such people even deliberately provoke conflict situations, spread unpleasant gossip. Who is being targeted by such people? First of all, the most honest and conscientious employees of the team can become victims of thieves and “rats”. For the reason that thieves see them as a potential, but hidden danger, and therefore will make every effort to completely eliminate them. Such people do not hesitate to use the most dirty and unacceptable methods. Searching for all sorts of fake incriminating evidence, digging in the laundry basket, denigrating honor and reputation - all this can cause a person to write a letter of resignation or be fired by the owner of the company who did not understand the situation.
We must understand that in this case, delay is like death. Under no circumstances should you hesitate. If measures are not taken in a timely manner, the “thieves” and “rats” will win sooner or later. That is why it is so important for a manager to identify and neutralize the “rats” in time, or even better - preventive measures prevent their occurrence.

How to do this?

1. First of all, you need to understand that a thief cannot be a productive or valuable worker, but he can and, more often than not, is very good at imitating hectic activity with great talent. After all, he good actor. Such a would-be worker always accumulates unfinished projects and poorly completed work on time, but he has no results as such. If you decide to ask a swindler why he works so poorly, the thief will look at you with a look of bewilderment and misunderstanding. Full of righteous anger and indignation. After all, he is paid for the mere fact of his presence at the workplace! Or this option - “What a job - for such pennies.” Due to the fact that theft brings a “rat” much more profit than a salary, he will not even make extra movements in order to work honestly and well.

2. If rumors and gossip appear in your company, know: in the center of this funnel sits big spider, this is the well-known “rat”. After all, his righteous goal is to undermine the working atmosphere, to create confusion among the staff, to make the manager an object of hostility on the part of the staff.

3. When a ship sinks, “the rats are the first to flee the ship.” So both thieves and swindlers instantly escape responsibility. They will never admit their guilt. Any “miscalculations” are always someone else’s fault.

4. The “Rat” will hinder the establishment of order in the company, hiding behind all sorts of plausible pretexts, simply because order is not personally beneficial to him.
If you want to find out how honest your staff is, you can conduct a simple experiment. During the planning meeting, casually bring up the topic of theft or “bribery”, and the “thief” will immediately try to either change the topic, or laugh it off, or react in some other unexpected way - for example, scratch his ear, start looking in the other direction.

So, let’s go over the main signs of a “rat” again:

Lack of productivity;
ineffectiveness;
constant shortcomings and “jambs” in work;
failure to take measures to eliminate chaos within the company;
a strange and unexpected reaction when talking about theft.

How to deal with "rats"?

The best way is prevention.

1. Creating a platform for constant and strict reporting, building a high-quality system warehouse accounting, systematic inventories. The presence of a really good accounting and re-accounting system will block the opportunity for the “rat” to steal and will eliminate any loopholes and moves.
2. Enter mandatory list necessary actions indicating those who must perform these actions and sign them, thus taking responsibility. The use of such forms will help eliminate confusion and chaos within the organization, and also makes the “thieves” personally responsible for certain moments, which they absolutely do not like.
3. Organizing a system of individual indicators and statistics that can demonstrate the amount of product created by a specific employee per certain time. With their help, the manager will be able to draw conclusions about the productivity of each of his employees and make decisions related to personal rewards or punishments. Since the “thief” works extremely poorly, she will be the first candidate for dismissal, and after a while there will be no trace of the “rats” among the team.

Almost all pets are very curious, and those kept in cages are doubly so. That is why it is important for all owners of decorative rodents to know what to do in the event of a sudden escape of their pet.

Such travel can be too dangerous, and in some cases even fatal for a pet.

What actions should be taken if a decorative rat escapes from its cage will be discussed below.

First of all, you need to calm down. Panicking and running around the entire apartment from corner to corner cannot achieve a positive result.

You should be extremely careful and careful so that in a panic you do not accidentally step on or crush an escaped animal. Although rats are very inquisitive, they quickly become saturated with the acquired freedom and try to find a secluded place to hide. Having ruled out potential household hazards such as loose toilet lids, buckets of water, unclosed windows, etc., you can begin to catch the rat.

First, turn off all devices in the apartment that make sounds, listen to see if characteristic rustling sounds are coming from somewhere in the corner of the room. If there are any, immediately check the place where they are coming from; most likely, the fugitive is located there. Do not forget that rats love secluded corners, holes, and hard-to-reach places. Start gradually combing all possible locations of your pet.

At the same time, do not forget to be careful when moving furniture and moving around the room so as not to inadvertently crush the animal. First of all, the most secluded places, dark and inaccessible, are checked.

Often these are gaps between the wall and furniture, under sofas, chairs, beds, crumpled bedding and clothes. Rats are very agile animals and you should look for them not only on the floor, but also on mezzanines, shelves, racks, and so on.

Once the rat is located, try to lure it out. If calling does not help, place the cage next to the place where the pet is hiding. Most likely, he is already hungry and will gladly return to a safe and familiar place. Stay near the cage and try not to make noise so as not to scare the animal.

Another way if the first does not produce results is as follows. Try to call the escaped animal (perhaps your pet is trained to respond to a name or the sound of a squeaking toy) and put it in available space open cage with water and liquid food. The rat can carry solid food out of the cage to a secluded place of its choice.

If the rat has already become hungry and also knows how to respond to the owner’s call, it will most likely come to the call. Do this one by one with all the rooms, starting with the one from which the rat escaped. If this procedure does not produce results, do not despair and move on to the next stage of the search.

If all the above measures do not produce results, you can use the help of a live trap (trap). This device will help you catch your pet without harming it. The trap is a cage that closes as soon as the rodent gets inside. Sooner or later you will hear the click of the door closing and you will be able to return your pet to its cage.

And remember that a rodent can survive without water and food for about three days; if during this time the animal has not indicated its presence in any way, then perhaps it has already left its native land and got out of the apartment, or something bad happened and it is blocked somewhere, then you will have no choice but to turn the entire room upside down.

How to catch a runaway rat?

Even the most attentive and conscientious rat owner can make a mistake, for example, not locking the cage door or leaving the door to the room where the rat was allowed to roam ajar. The result is that the rat disappeared. Your natural reaction will be to panic. No need to panic! Instead, it's better to take action.

First, gather up all the predatory pets you have in the house and keep them under your radar. Otherwise, your dog, cat or ferret may find the rats before you do. And this is no good - unless, of course, your dog is on friendly terms with rats, because then he can help you track them by smell. It would also be prudent to lock doors leading outside.

After that sound the horn to call escaped rats to you. Start in the room where they disappeared. If you've trained them to respond to their name or to a squeaky toy, they may come running to you immediately, especially when they've been free for a while and are getting hungry. If the rat has recently escaped, it will take quite a long time for it to explore its surroundings, and a frightened rat may be hiding. In any case, you will have to look into every nook and cranny and listen for every rustle or sound that a rat usually makes when gnawing on something. Rats usually hide in their favorite places: behind a bookcase, under the bed, in a closet, under the refrigerator. They can end up in almost any place where they are difficult to get.

If you do find one, how do you convince it to come out? For this, it is best to use food bait. However, be on your guard, because these mischievous creatures often snatch the treat right out of your hands and, together with it, run away as fast as they can back to their secluded place. Escaped rats are as quick as lightning!
If a squeaky toy and treats don't work, try sitting quietly near their hideout and they may come out to you on their own. You can put their cage next to it. When rats want to eat or drink, they may head to a familiar place. If you have at least one rat left at your disposal, so much the better. Use it as bait. Put her in a cage and give her some crunchy treat - let her gnaw on it as appetizingly as possible. Hearing familiar sounds, escaped rats may emerge to demand their share.

If your rats are well trained, when the adventure wears off for them, they will most likely happily return to you. But if all attempts fail, buy a small animal trap.

While some people have little to no problems with pests such as rodents, there are certain regions where residents are more likely to suffer from rodent infestations than others. If you live in these areas, your attic can become home to rats that can cause a lot of trouble for your family and property.

Beware of attic rats

There are many varieties of rodents. As a rule, Norway (gray) and attic (black) rats live in houses. For effective fight With pests, it is advisable to determine what type of rodents are in your attic. The gray rat differs from the Norway rat in several ways.

Let's look at some of these differences.

Size. Unlike the Norway rat, which is also known as the sewer rat or brown rat, attic rats are smaller in size and their tails are longer than their bodies. They grow up to 18 inches in length, including their tail, and weigh less than their cousins.
Color. Attic rats are typically black in color, while Norway rats are brown or gray. The former have a smaller body than Norway rats, and their fur is smooth. They also have big ears and pointed faces.
Nesting sites. Unlike other types of rats, attic rodents are also good climbers and can create temporary nests not only underground in burrows. Outdoors, you may see these rats nesting in trees, bushes, and other dense vegetation. In enclosed spaces, animals like to nest in the most warm places, especially in attics, as roofs become hot during the day. In addition to attics, you can find them in various places in the home, including: closets, ceilings, garage, interior wall cavities, laundry room, etc. Their nesting site should provide the rodent with enough water to maintain life, so rats may take up residence in the yard , not far from the pool or water pump.
Food preferences. Unlike other types of rats, which often prefer to eat leftover sausages, meats, and high-protein foods, attic rats have a diet similar to that of squirrels. This means they primarily eat nuts and fruits, but like other types of rats, attic rodents are omnivores. They will eat almost anything if they are hungry enough, including: ornamental plants, food for dogs and cats, food for cows, pigs and chickens, vegetables, nuts, seeds, tree bark, insects, lizards, paper, paraffin and wax.

Water sources for attic rats include:

bird waterers in the garden;
holes and fistulas in the pipeline;
condensate;
drinking bowls for pets
saucers that are placed under indoor plants;
irrigation lines.

In addition, rats can chew on plastic and metal pipes to gain access to water, which can lead to the need for urgent repairs.

Signs of rats

You won't always be able to see rats as they are most active at night. However, you may notice signs of them in your home or on your property. Once you discover this, you need to take proper action as quickly as possible. One of the most obvious signs of an infestation is droppings. It is smaller in attic rats than in Norway rats. Other signs:

you will hear characteristic sounds in the attic walls;
stains and marks on drainpipes and walls;
eaten fruits, vegetables and other food in the yard;
damaged electrical wires;
traces and marks along the walls inside the house;
nests, scattered debris found on your property.

Once rats have taken up residence inside a home, their numbers can skyrocket. One female can give birth to five to eight cubs at a time. In regions with hot and temperate climate rats breed all year round, and females can give birth up to three times a year.

How do rodents get into the house?

Attic rats are good climbers and can nest at sufficient heights. They use tree branches to climb onto the roof and easily enter the attic if there are gaps in the wall or under the roof. Rodents can also get into your home in other ways, including:

climb up the vine;
use power lines;
climb on brick and concrete blocks.

Once they get to your home, all they need is a small hole to get inside. They often visit homes when searching for food or hiding from predators. Rats have many animal enemies, including: snakes, birds of prey, dogs and cats, coyotes, owls.

Why are attic paints dangerous?

All rats can become aggressive when threatened. They can rush at a person and bite. The bite of an attic rat can be dangerous, as some carry various diseases, including fever, which can be contracted through a bite or even scratches. Symptoms of fever appear within a few days to several weeks. In some cases, a person becomes ill after the bite or scratch has healed, so it is important to know how these signs manifest themselves. These include:

rashes;
vomit;
headache;
fever;
pain in muscles and joints.

How much property damage do rats cause?

Pests make holes in the walls to gain access to the attic. Inside, they can damage property in the following ways:

damage to wires;
rats chew through wooden beams in the attic;
making holes in pipes and polluting water.

How to get rid of rats?

If you notice obvious signs and heard characteristic sounds in the house, you have several options to get rid of these pests. A rodent trap or repellent can effectively help you reduce the number of rodents and eliminate this problem. There are several options for commonly used rat traps - traditional rat traps, sticky traps, electronic rat traps, and electronic rat traps, as well as repellers.

Rat baits and traps

If you use the right bait, you can easily lure the pests into the trap. Attic rats do not prefer the same food as other types of rats, so it is better to use the following products and means for luring:

dried fruits;
nuts;
berries;
insects;
peanut butter;
snail shells.

Rats are often very wary in new places, and to lure them into a trap, simply leave it unloaded for a few days so that the rodents get used to it. Snap traps may seem like an old-fashioned way to catch rats, but they are still very effective. These traps have metal mechanism, which snaps into place and thereby kills the rat. Each trap kills one rat, so you need to set multiple traps to significantly reduce the rat population. There are several advantages to using such mechanisms:

they can be used once or repeatedly;
Possibility of use indoors and outdoors;
no toxic materials are used in the manufacture of traps;
if a rat is caught, you will see it immediately.

It is important to take all precautions when installing these traps in a home where children and pets live. You should also use protective equipment and antiseptics when disposing of your rat. Electronic traps are a more modern option. This is a humane and non-toxic way to control rats. The devices electrocute the rat and have many advantages:

suitable for reusable use;
the dead rat is not visible inside the trap body, but is easy to discard;
when the rodent dies, the indicator lights up;
The devices are safe to use and will not harm children or large pets.

Victor® offers a variety of electronic rat traps. These traps are easy to set up and install. The Zapper® Ultra kills pests with a shock of electricity. A flashing red light comes on when the rodent is destroyed. The trap requires 4 D-cell batteries to operate, and you can kill about 60 animals with one set of batteries. The company also offers the Zapper® Classic trap, which runs on 4 AA batteries. The device can kill up to 20 rats using one set of batteries. Victor® provides different types sticky traps. They do not require any special approach to installation, so they are simple and easy to use. Simply place glue traps along the wall or in the attic where rats usually run.

In turn, the ultrasonic repellents presented on our website work by producing high-frequency sound waves that repel rodents. The sound is unbearable to rodents, but is inaudible to humans and most pets. When using a repeller, you need to move the hamster, guinea pig and other rodents into another room. Victor® produces several ultrasonic devices. You can browse our catalog and decide which one is best for you depending on the size of the room in which it will be used. No matter which one you choose, all ultrasonic devices are easy to use - you just plug them in and they work.

How to avoid a rat infestation?

It is important to thoroughly clean the premises to prevent rats from returning to the house. Here are some simple tips:

make sure all containers and garbage bags are tightly closed;
regularly collect and throw away garbage that has accumulated in the local area;
do not give your pet more food than he can eat in one day;
store food and pet food in metal containers with lids;
Store grains and other dry foods in airtight containers.

Rats seek out places where there is food and water, so eliminate all sources of water such as fountains, leaking pipes and birdbaths.

You can take simple steps to prevent rats from getting into your home:

seal cracks or crevices;
install protective screens over ventilation openings;
use a screen to protect the fireplace;
Find and seal any paths under sinks, dryers, dishwashers and washing machines, water heaters;
does not leave doors open for a long time;
Make sure all window frames are in good condition.

Also trim tree branches, vines and bushes near your home that are within three feet of your roof. Homes with attics are more likely to become a breeding ground for rats. Some other things that may attract rats to your home:

shrubs;
palm trees;
honeysuckle;
boxes for storing vegetables, etc.

Victor® can help you get rid of rats in your home.

You know, a flight mechanic,” he finally said, “a fat watchdog is more suitable for the role of an underground millionaire than a white-eyed sycophant.” You will notice the alarming sparkle in the watchdog's eyes. He can’t sit still, he’s impatient, he wants to quickly run home and put his paws into bags of ducats. Of course, he is a collector of carats and dollars. Don't you see that this fat mug is nothing more than a democratic combination of the faces of Shylock, the Miserly Knight and Harpagon?..
Ilf and Petrov. Golden calf.

The immortals Ilf and Petrov described how Ostap Bender, looking from the outside, tried to identify the underground millionaire Koreiko. Physiognomy failed the great schemer. Although his reasoning undoubtedly made some sense.

From a security officer modern enterprise there is no time for mistakes. If there is a “rat” in any structure - private or public - any of its actions can have the most far-reaching tragic consequences, both for the leader personally and for the organization as a whole.

Let’s make a reservation right away - the internal “saboteur” can be either a stupid “fool” who acts spontaneously, or a “chess player” who carefully and thoughtfully calculates his every step. Despite the seeming frivolity of the former, they should not be underestimated. Any operative will tell you that sometimes absurd crimes committed by a frightened amateur are more difficult to investigate than actions prepared by a professional. The absence of a normal motive and logic in the actions of a criminal can lead the investigation and operational search activities to a dead end. The only saving grace is that such figures, as a rule, are not able to “cover their tracks,” and they are usually easily identified by criminologists. The consequences of the actions of such figures can be simply catastrophic...

In the early 2000s, a carpenter tried to steal a piece of cable at one of the Ukrainian nuclear power plants. Without further ado, he chopped the cable with an ax. As a result, several settlements, fed from the station, were completely de-energized. The damage caused to the economy of the region and the station itself was simply colossal. At the same time, the cost of the cable, if it was successfully delivered to a scrap metal collection point, was approximately equal to a carpenter’s salary for ONE working day. The average salary at the station at that time was the highest in the region. All members of the would-be thieves’ family worked at the same station...

The beauty of such “criminals” is that they can run around with their idiotic plans for improving life for quite a long time, discussing them with friends and colleagues, and show unmotivated interest in certain details of the enterprise’s activities that do not concern them personally. Therefore, most of these manifestations are not difficult to prevent. Very often, both public and private intelligence agencies obtain valuable information by recruiting unqualified technical personnel. The cleaning lady, Aunt Manya, may not see anything reprehensible in handing over a piece of paper from a programmer’s desk or the contents of a design engineer’s trash can to a stranger, receiving her annual salary for this immediately. Moreover, even after leaving in handcuffs straight to the prosecutor’s office building, she will sincerely consider all this a misunderstanding, and the director who ratted her out as a heartless bastard. The consciousness of such “Aunt Man” is not able to establish a cause-and-effect relationship between the theft of a piece of hardware or the transfer of pieces of paper from the trash bin to a man in a suit with fifty million dollars in damage or the death of her own son in the ensuing war.

It should be accepted as a fact that for a long time an important component of Japanese intelligence activities was the purchase of content trash cans from various research institutes and design bureaus. First of all, on the territory of the USSR. The “rogue” engineers sent intermediate development projects that somehow dissatisfied them, including top secret ones, which, in theory, should have been destroyed, to the landfill. Based on the contents of the baskets, Japanese analysts instantly determined the strategic directions of development (sharing them with their strategic allies), and the “failed” solutions, after minimal correction and refinement, were sent to the assembly line, saving billions on preliminary research. Their “agents” from among the cleaners received several chervonets a month for their “work”...

Therefore, the activities of the SSB in such situations should be aimed at establishing a regime at the enterprise that completely excludes access of outsiders to the place where they could cause any accidental damage - the so-called “idiot protection”. At the same time, you should not discard information about the most crazy and illogical ideas of your employees that have become known from colleagues. It’s better to be convinced a hundred times that the idea of stealing and exchanging a radiation rod for a barrel of moonshine is the drunken delirium of the locksmith Vova, than to allow such an attempt at least once. Tough preventative work (but without excesses - they can cause offense and have the opposite effect) will most likely extinguish the fuse in a stupid “pest” for a long time. In general, if the personnel situation allows it, it is better, after expressing such ideas, to send such employees to raise national economy to another place. Even if this sounds cynical, it is better to ruin the life of the mechanic Vova than to let him thoughtlessly destroy the infrastructure of an entire enterprise and throw eight thousand people onto the street at once...

Having more or less dealt with random amateur pests, let’s move on to the professionals. A professional saboteur can be any qualified employee, from an assistant system administrator to a deputy general director. Let’s say right away that the most dangerous “pest” is a loner. Such people do not attract accomplices, do not share their thoughts with anyone, but do things quietly and unnoticed. It is as difficult for the security service to catch such a “pest” as it is for the criminal investigation department to catch a maniac killer. The lack of connections, information leaks, and opportunities to identify a source makes this kind of work a piece of jewelry. Activities at an enterprise by groups and organizations aimed at undermining it, although larger-scale and dangerous at a particular point in time, are easier to identify and stop using standard “security” tools.

Parallels between combating general criminal crimes and intelligence and subversive activities in terms of identifying a lone criminal do exist. And let the noble spies forgive us for such a comparison - since from the point of view of the law of the host country, they are also criminals. And the methods of investigating any crimes from the perspective of criminology and law still have common patterns.

For about 20 years the police were looking for one of the most bloody maniacs post-Soviet times - Sergei Tkach. When he was already caught, in terms of the number of officially proven murders he was inferior to the notorious Onoprienko, but according to unofficial data, he holds on post-Soviet space terrible "leadership". His “secret” is that in his youth he served in the police, was a capable criminologist and knew perfectly well what exactly the investigative team would look for at the crime scene. And besides, he acted on his own and did not share his “successes” with anyone. Criminal psychologists believe that it was possible to detain the non-human only because he was “tired” of his atrocities, subconsciously wanted to be caught and began to leave unconscious clues at crime scenes.

Likewise, illegal intelligence officers who were not part of the “groups” and “undergrounds” managed to successfully resist counterintelligence and the law enforcement forces of the host country for ten to twenty years, even doing successful career in the intelligence services, such as, for example, the famous Kim Philby, who paralyzed for a long time the activities of British intelligence against Soviet Union. Given that intelligence agencies carefully guard their secrets, we will never know about many of the best illegal immigrants. Introduce or recruit such a lone professional - a combination good luck and a lot of work. But catching him is just fabulous luck...

The search for “professional pests” is carried out by the method of “determining signs of illegal activity” - in other words, catching them in inconsistencies.

When searching for “pests,” the easiest way is to start from the motive. The most common motives are as old as time and are based on passions and instincts. Experience shows that in 90 percent of cases, a person is put on the path to betrayal by the desire to live better than the real situation allows. Some people want to drink expensive drinks, some want to drive expensive cars, some want to have sex with models, and some just want to have a round sum in their bank account - “so be it.” No matter how immoral it may sound, the task of a good “sbshnik” is to clearly imagine the level and details of the life of any employee of the enterprise and correlate it with “legal income”. Everything needs to be included in an employee’s salary template - a new car, an apartment, a vacation in Dubai, an affair with “Miss September” from a local glossy magazine. If a person makes expenses in a month that, in the normal development of the situation, he would need to save for a couple of years, this is already a reason to think about it. It is too early to accuse him of anything, but such a signal must be carefully verified.

In fact, acting on this principle, if there is basic political will, it would be possible to catch most of our corrupt officials. Maintenance costs existing image many of them have lives hundreds, if not thousands, of times longer than they are official income. This was perfectly demonstrated to the public by the “prosecutor’s” scandal in the Moscow region. Leaks of investigative materials to the press showed that some of his defendants spent amounts equal to their salaries for several years of impeccable service on organizing one corporate event. The question arises for those who, to paraphrase the classics, “must watch the guard” - wasn’t this obvious before?

By the way, if we talk about corruption, then the stories of democratic reformers about the West, where “no one steals” are outright nonsense. People's weaknesses are the same everywhere. And the mayor of New York or Reykjavik spends millions on an election campaign not because of the mayor's salary. It’s just that Western “corrupt officials” know about “catching on inconsistencies” and would rather, even having the means to buy a Rolls-Royce, ride a bicycle to work than become heroes of anti-corruption investigations...

In such a situation, it is very important not to scare the person being tested. The uproar can cause the guilty to hide and destroy evidence, and the innocent may be severely insulted. First of all, you need to check whether there are secret sources of SSB in the immediate environment (division, company, interest club) of the person being tested. If not, then it is advisable to introduce them. By submitting requests, conversations - find out whether the person being inspected has a second job, whether things have changed marital status(successful marriage, inheritance), whether he won any competition. If you receive positive answers to at least one of the above questions, the level of anxiety can be immediately lowered. But do not remove suspicions completely. If writing websites in the evenings gives your programmer an additional income of $500, this does not explain the appearance of his Mercedes S-Class. Like marrying a businessman's daughter mediocre does not explain a holiday at an elite resort in Monaco. If the contradiction between income and expenses persists, you can move on to more active measures. The most basic ones include a secret audit, intensification of work with the person being audited by security sources who will try to bring him into a frank conversation one way or another, the organization of external surveillance, if there are appropriate permissions in the contract - the removal of information from communication channels, close video recording of his work process, secret checks of his workplace, in particular his computer. In the case of high-quality implementation of a set of designated activities (each of them is the topic of a separate story), with a probability of 90 - 95 percent, the cause of the discrepancy will be identified. I warn you right away, in most cases it will not contain any crime. But even one caught “pest” out of ten inspected is a serious result - saved funds and saved business reputation of the company.

To the author of these lines, his friend, a high-ranking bank employee, complained several years ago about SSB employees who “blinked” at a rather impudent “rat.” A modest computer scientist with a salary of $300 a month bought himself a used BMW in six months, went to an expensive resort and became the groom of the first beauty of the branch. It turned out that the young man, working as a substitute, “gutted” the ATMs. What he hoped for is unclear, since financiers calculated the shortage and the person who had access to finance after the first serious audit. But since he spent money quite actively, by the time of the intervention law enforcement agencies, he physically had nothing to compensate for the damage. If the SSB had worked according to it after the first inexplicable expenses, then the situation would have been resolved with “little loss.”

Yes, and one more thing. Never forget your checks. Store and analyze even unconfirmed information. Clever “pests” can come up with a brilliant legend and lie low. It happens that a fraudster caught red-handed could have been checked by you five years ago and left alone...

If any of our statesman could look into the archives of law enforcement agencies and intelligence services, he would be horrified by the number of checks carried out on him, which did not find confirmation of illegal actions. And almost anyone would breathe a sigh of relief - since a significant part of these checks had a real basis.