Protect your business from fraud!

With our ever increasing digital and technological age, all online businesses are attractive targets for fraudsters who are coming up with ever increasing ways to access your bank accounts, or convince business owners to part with their cash.  The information below contains some simple steps you can take to help you spot when a fraudster is targeting your business.  <b>A common scam </b> When the beneficiary of a payment you  are due to make contacts you and asks you to change the account number of where you send the money, you should independently check that the email or letter they have sent is genuine by calling a known contact in the beneficiary's business, or a telephone number you know is correct. It's incredibly easy for a fraudster to find out who supplies your business and then mimic that supplier in an attempt to get money from you.  <b>Money laundering </b> As well as going through the <i>Know Your Client </i>checks, always be suspicious if a new client sends you a payment for a lot more than you were expecting and then asks you to return the excess funds to them. You should always check with your bank the source of the original payment before returning any funds.  <b>On the phone</b>  <ul> <li>Call back – if you are ever suspicious about a caller from a business you know, always call back on a known number  </li> <li>Use a different phone – try and use a different phone to the one you received the call on  </li> <li>Caller display – don't rely on your phone's caller display to ID a caller, as fraudsters will go to any means to mimic a known person to you  </li> <li>Passwords – never divulge online passwords during a phone call  </li> </ul> <b>Online </b> <ul> <li>Anti virus software – ensure all PCs are protected by AV software and update it regularly  </li> <li>Think before you click – only download programmes or click hyperlinks you can trust TIP hover your mouse over a hyperlink to see the web address  </li> <li>Spelling and errors – be very suspicious of emails that are poorly worded or have bad spelling  </li> </ul>  Business fraud is a billion pound business and we can all take steps to ensure that we don't get caught out. Every business is at risk from fraudsters!