Guarding your small business from fraud attacks is essential for protecting your bottom line and keeping the trust of your customers.
Scams may be ever-present and ever-changing, but that doesn’t mean you can’t take steps to prevent them! Here are a few tips to get you started:
- Educate your Employees. Hold monthly or quarterly training courses to keep employees informed about how to avoid scams. A few of the most popular include:
- Fake invoices
- Utility company or government agency imposters
- Tech support scams
- Phishing and ransomware
- Artificial Intelligence (AI) deep fakes and voice cloning
- Secure Passwords and Online Files. Protect your sensitive financial information from phishing or ransomware attacks by making sure your passwords are stored securely, and that you have good anti-virus software on your company computers.
- Research Potential Business Partners or Vendors. Scammers often pretend to offer services like advertising, office supplies or online security to get a paycheck and then disappear. Before doing business with another company, research them thoroughly.
TIP: Search the company’s name and “scam” or “fraud” on your preferred search engine, and see what pops up. Consider using recommendations from other businesses in your community when picking products or signing up for services.
- Inspect Invoices and Payments Closely. Never pay a bill unless you know exactly what it’s for, and be sure to verify you actually ordered the item. Additionally, if a wire transfer or gift card is the preferred payment for a vendor, it is usually a surefire sign of a scam.
