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Small
Business Scams
Every
business is susceptible
to scams, no matter the size of your company, precautions and awareness
to
avoid fraud should be simultaneous to every transaction that you make.
Scams
flood businesses at any time, whether they be in the form of fax
offers, e-mail
spam, work-at-home offers or phony phone calls.
Scammers are becoming
more and more clever in exploiting the weaknesses of small businesses.
Below are some of the
most common small business scams, including ways to avoid them.
Work-At-Home
Scams.
These
scams prey on
people who want to build a home-based business, they offer potential
victims
the chance to “make fast money” just by working
from home. It works in this
way; victim pays for the materials and information they supposedly
require to make
money, but all that happens is victim is left with garbage.
Don’t bite.
Fraudulent
Billing Scams.
Yes,
scammers show us
no respect, they even send your business invoices for services or goods
that
you have not ordered, hoping that you will just pay it, how demeaning,
right?
This
is why we must examine
our invoices vigilantly. Ensure you educate your staff about phony
bills. Create
a system so that at least two or three staff members must authorize
company
payments.
“
The Surprise Cheque” is a related scam where your
business gets a cheque for a minute amount. This trick
“promotional incentive”
check, which if cashed, can put you in a lot of unwanted trouble since
it means
you agreed to whatever terms that were printed on the back of the
cheque.
Advance
Fee Loan Scams.
These
scams rear their
ugly heads anywhere, ads in papers, or even on the internet. Scammers
try to
get you to help them pay for “insurance purposes”
or whatever ludicrous reason.
One thing is for certain; you don’t get this money back. And
remember, It’s
illegal to ask for money upfront for a loan in most countries, so this
should
raise a flag for you to stay far away. Actually, run.
Business
Identity Theft.
In
the same way that
someone can steal your personal identity for malicious purposes, your
business
identity can also be stolen. Once a scammer steals your
company’s identity, they
will use your financial information and business name to run up all
kinds of expenses.
Number
one way to
avoid this is to protect your business data. Don’t believe
that just by rolling
up a paper and throwing it like Jordon into the bin means that this
will
shred all
your information, you must take steps to properly discard papers by
putting
them through a shredder. Be very cautions with sensitive information
you give
out over the phone or via emails.
Credit
Card Scams.
Credit
Card scams are
on the rise, especially when it comes to buying services on the
internet. Here’s
that scenario no one wants to be in: someone places an order for an
item using
information that was fraudulently obtained. Your business processes the
order,
only to find out later that the Credit Card was stolen, therefore the
payment
will be charged back. See, you lose your goods and get no money.
To
avoid this scam it’s
important to stay on your toes. Always use attentiveness to make sure
that
orders that come in are legitimate. Keep your eyes open, specifically
on
callers from overseas, persons requesting large orders and rush
shipping.
Remember, taking proper action on one or two suspicious orders now and
then
will not jeopardize your business or lose your customers,
don’t be afraid to
tell a customer that you will get back to them due to
“difficulties” while you
check with the bank, etc.
*Sick
Scam Twist" is a terrible scam where credit
card thieves abroad use TTY phone service for the deaf to pose as
hearing-impaired callers. You see the depths these scammers will go to
rob you?
Hope
this article was
informative. Please report scams here, the best thing to do is alert
the
public. And please remember, If
it seems too good to be true, it is, and by 100 miles. Visit Our forum
and
Blog
to
discuss more.
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