Introduction
If you operate a small business or are an owner of a non-profit organization, you put in a lot of time and effort to ensure that it runs smoothly. Scammers, on the other hand, may damage your reputation and financial success. What might be your best defense? Learn what red flags businesses should watch out for. Then educate your workers and yourself.
Things You Can Do To Protect Your Business
Train your employees
- Your best defense is an informed workforce. Explain to your staff how scams happen and share this brochure with them. Order free copies at FTC.gov/Bulkorder.
- Encourage people to talk with their coworkers if they spot a scam. Scammers often target multiple people in an organization, so an alert from one employee about a scam can help prevent others from being deceived.
- Train employees not to send passwords or sensitive information by email, even if the email seems to come from a manager. Then stick with the program — don’t ever ask for sensitive data from employees by email.
Verify Invoices And Payments
Most small business owners wait until the income tax filing period to reconcile invoices and payments.
- Check all invoices closely. Never pay unless you know the bill is for items that were actually ordered and delivered. Tell your staff to do the same.
- Make sure procedures are clear for approving invoices or expenditures. To reduce the risk of a costly mistake, limit the number of people who are authorized to place orders and pay invoices. Review your procedures to make sure major spending can’t be triggered by an unexpected call, email, or invoice.
- Pay attention to how someone asks you to pay. Tell your staff to do the same. If you are asked to pay with a wire transfer, reloadable card, or gift card, you can bet it’s a scam.
Beware That Nothing Is Fully Secure Online
It’s so easy to think that everything is secure on the Internet. Google, Apple, Facebook, or any other web platforms you use will assure everything is secure.
Doing and conducting business transaction has its own risks. If you understand that no companies can guarantee your data security, you can decide the risks you’re willing to accept.
- Don’t believe your caller ID. Imposters often fake caller ID information so you’ll be more likely to believe them when they claim to be a government agency or a vendor you trust.
- Remember that email addresses and websites that look legitimate are easy for scammers to fake. Stop and think about whether it could be a scam before you click. Scammers even can hack into the social media accounts of people you trust and send you messages that appear to be from them. Don’t open attachments or download files from unexpected emails; they may have viruses that can harm your computer.
Conclusion
There are plenty of other methods that you can use to protect your business from scammers, read more on ftc.gov and you should use them all in combination to make sure that you’re as safe as possible.