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| Small Business Fraud Smaller businesses
are becoming an increasingly attractive target for fraud.
Small business owners typically have less money to spend on
prevention, so they frequently find themselves becoming victims of
bad operators trying to scam them. As soon as small business owners
learn the red flags of the latest scams, the fraudsters develop new
ones. And, while technology has made the fight against fraud easier
in some cases, it's also opened up new opportunities for criminals.
Two scams have become more prevalent recently: TTY scams and
Overpayment Scams.
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With the TTY
system, a hearing- or speech-impaired customer types messages to
an operator, who then reads them aloud to the call’s recipient.
Operators are generally not allowed to disclose the location
from where the call originates. This anonymity has made this a
popular route for scam artists to target small businesses, with
many originating overseas. |
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In overpayment
scams, businesses are overpaid through stolen checks or credit
cards, and then asked to return the difference when the
merchandise is shipped. Often, the businesses are asked to send
the goods to a third party, which will in turn send them to the
scammers -- adding another layer. Sellers take longer to realize
what's unfolding, by which time it becomes nearly impossible to
trace the scammers. |
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In several
instances, businesses have been targeted by both TTY and
overpayment scams in the same transaction, according to the
Better Business Bureau. |
Another scam targeting small business owners is Food Stamp Fraud.
Food stamp benefit dollars are being stolen from store accounts.
Someone may call your store pretending to be an EBT vendor or a Food
Stamp official. He or she will say s/he must test your EBT machine
immediately or it will stop working. The caller will instruct you to
enter a series of numbers followed by a dollar amount. These are
valid EBT card and PIN numbers. The transactions you are completing
are key-entered refunds. Money is moved from your store’s account to
the EBT cardholder account. This is NOT a test. Money has been and
is being stolen from stores like yours. The refunded food stamp
benefits are then quickly spent or trafficked in other locations.
For more information about Food Stamp Fraud,
click here for English or
here
for Spanish.
Source:
http://www.inc.com/articles/2007/03/scams.html
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