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3 Common Scams You Need To Be Aware Of

March 1st, 2024 Posted in Money Tips
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Scams and online fraud account for over 40% of criminal activity in the UK, and between April 2022 and March 2023, there were over 3,5 million incidents involving people aged 16 and over in the UK.

Falling victim to a scam can be extremely worrying and have massive implications on your lifestyle and finances. Sadly, too many people are still fooled by scammers; as seen on the BBC 1 show Scam Interceptors and the methods used by unscrupulous scammers are becoming more sophisticated, manipulative and conniving as they go through the process of trying to obtain money and items that don’t belong to them.

Knowing the scam is part of being able to stay safe, and this post is going to look at a few of the more common scams seen in the UK to help you stay wise to criminals and their devious tactics.

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Amazon Scam

The Amazon scam is quite possibly one of the most common and even well-known scams. What happens is you get a call from someone pretending to be from Amazon (FYI, amazon will never call you out of the blue, so this should be a sign to hang up). Continuing the amazon scams approach, the caller will try to convince you someone is attempting to use your account to buy something expensive, and they’re going to hippo you to stop this by finding the person responsible and preventing you from losing money. The opposite is likely to happen.

Hi Mum

The “Hi Mum” scam is carried out via Whatsapp or text message. And it will simply be a message from an unknown number saying hi, mum. You will then be expected to respond with your child’s name to check if it’s them and ask why they are contacting you from a different number. They will then use this to ask you for money to go to an account you probably won’t recognise again, telling you a story as to why. If in doubt, don’t respond. Call the actual number for your child to talk to them directly.

Missed Delivery

Missed delivery texts or email scams are becoming more popular as more and more people use delivery services for good delivery. You will typically be told you need to pay an additional fee to have your parcel released, something which most companies don’t do unless import fees have not been covered, and this is usually relayed to you prior to delivery from the courier service or you will have a card posted through your door via Royal Mail.

To avoid flailing victims of any of these scams:

  1. Always hang up and use another method of communication to contact the company in question directly via usual methods, not using any suggestions from the potential scammer.
  2. Avoid giving them access to your phone by downloading an app or any other software they suggest.
  3. If they become pushy or impatient with you, then this is a clear indicator of a scam, and you should end all communications.
  4. If in doubt, call your bank or other associated accounts to protect your details and stop any transactions.

The more you know about the different scams and tactics used by scammers, the easier it is to spot different scams and stay safe.

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Fraud-Busting Ways to Protect Your Business

April 19th, 2018 Posted in Entrepreneurship
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Being the victim of fraud can be devastating for individuals and companies alike, which is why you will want to do everything you can to stop this from happening to your business. Threats are evolving all the time as scam artists find new ways to gather personal information and deprive your company of its hard-earned cash. So, you should be doing everything that you can to ensure that your company is not swindled. Here are just a few of the best ways that you can achieve this goal.

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Understand the Different Types of Fraud

Before you do anything else, you need to understand what the different types of fraud that can affect your business are. Some of the most common include identity theft, mail fraud, employment fraud, wire fraud, and bankruptcy fraud. There is plenty of information online which details many of the different methods that hackers use to get access to your vital business files, as well as some common prevention methods.

Prevent Employee Fraud Losses to Your Business

Once you understand the threats you are facing, you can start to take steps to prevent the fraud losses to your business. To start off with, you can implement a system of background checks for new employees, and particularly those who have financial responsibilities of any kind. You could look at getting an ID verification service to help out in your mission. Next up, you could separate financial duties so that no one is responsible for everything.

Review Your Invoices

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You should get into a habit of reviewing your invoices, accounts payable, and purchase orders on a regular basis to make sure that they are all from real vendors. You should also check the items that you are receiving against the invoices to make sure that your suppliers are fulfilling their end of the bargain. If you handle all your accounts alone, it is very easy for something to get missed and you could end up missing out.

Deal with Cybercrime

Many of the biggest fraudulent threats facing businesses today exist in the world of the internet. First of all, you need to have your antivirus software and firewalls kept updated. You should also be wary of the details that you give out online – particularly if you have not dealt with the individual or company in the past. If anything does happen to go wrong, it is essential that all your files are backed up in a secure location.

Prevent Cash and Inventory Losses

If you run a shop or business of any kind that isn’t online, you should take extra steps to prevent cash and inventory losses. Train your employees on the art of spotting counterfeit money and stolen credit cards. Set up inventory control policies which help you to keep track of all your supplies.

Fraud is one of the most frustrating and potentially devastating negative events which can impact your business. Use these methods as a way of reducing the risks that you face. http://credit-n.ru/blog-single-tg.html

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