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.