Small business owners beware—scammers are on the loose and you could become their next victim.

That's the message of the Federal Trade Commission, which has sent out an alert on the best ways for consumers to guard against scams.

The FTC offered these tips:

1. Be tech savvy.

Scammers pretend to be someone you trust, such as a company with which you do business or a government agency. They will dupe victims through fake caller IDs, fake email addresses and misleading websites and will hack social media accounts of people you know in order to send you messages from people you trust.

Never open attachments or download files from unexpected emails that may have dangerous viruses that could damage your computers and cost you critically important information stored in them.

2. Know with whom you’re dealing.

Scammers create a sense of urgency so you’ll make a hasty decision you will later regret. Before doing business with a new company, search its name online using the term “scam” or “complaint.” Pay heed to what other people report about that company online; there is often no better resource to trust than word of mouth, be it good or bad.

3. Don’t pay scammers something for nothing.

Scammers use intimidation and fear by telling you something terrible is about to happen unless they receive a payment before you can confirm their claims.

Scammers use untraceable payment methods by demanding payment through wire transfers, reloadable cards or gift cards that cannot be reversed or traced.

Verify invoices and payments for accuracy. The goods and services you order may not be the goods and services you received. You can reduce risk of fraud to your business by limiting the number of personnel with access to place orders. Pay attention to how those expenses were paid. If an invoice is fake and you pay it, that’s money you’ll never get back from a scammer.

Don’t give out information over the telephone. You may be surprised to get merchandise in the mail you didn’t order. If you receive unwanted merchandise you didn’t know you were ordering, however, you have the right to keep it.

4. Train your staff and yourself to recognize a scammer when you see one.

Watch out for scammers pretending to represent the Yellow Pages. They will ask you to pay for advertising or a listing in a nonexistent directory. If you do, don’t be surprised if you receive an unexpected bill in the mail for an amount far greater than the service you never knew you were buying.

If a scammer poses as a utility company representative and pressures you to immediately pay a late bill, don’t be fooled into believing that person. Verify his or her identity by asking for their identification and then verifying it.

Imposters will also fool you into believing they are government agents, including IRS agents, threatening to suspend business licenses, impose fines or even take legal action if you don’t pay taxes, renew government licenses or registrations, or other fees. Once again, verify the identities of those persons, and if you can’t, call the police.

As technology has advanced, so, too, have scams hatched by would-be profiteers. Don’t give out information to anyone that calls you up, pretending to represent a well-known company, or telling you there is a problem with your computer security, the FTC says. They want you money or access to your computer, or both. Your computer is your wallet; it contains information with your identification access to your money. Don’t give those valuables away to thieves in fake technicians’ clothing.

Watch out for social engineering, phishing or ransomware scams in online, as well as offline. Cyber scammers will trick you into giving up your most precious identification on the Internet—your password.

Remember, access to your online bankbook is just as important to thieves as access to the wallet you carry in your pocket or handbag. Emails you or your staff receives are the key to unlocking those wallets, either by stealing information of locking out you and your staff from company files thieves can then ransom back to you for your hard-earned profits.

Be careful of scammers that sell bogus business coaching and Internet promotion services. Scammers falsely promise amazing results and exclusive market research for people who pay their fees.

Don’t believe any scammer that tries to convince you they can replace negative reviews of your product or service, or boost your scores on ratings sites. For better or worse, those opinions reflect the honest opinion of the people that wrote them.

Last, but not least, avoid the fake check scam. If a scammer overpays with a check and asks you to wire the extra money to a third party, you may be on the hook for a bad check that leaves you paying the bank’s bill for it.

Never ask an employee for sensitive data via email.