Scammers Don’t Affect the Prepared

Today’s business world is subject to countless scams and cybersecurity threats, and it’s your job to ensure that your company does not fall victim to these scams and con artists. How can you be sure that the many messages you receive on a regular basis are actually from legitimate sources and not from someone out to make a profit off your business? To put it simply, awareness is the key.

Today we will discuss how you can identify and address popular online scams. Here are three tips that can help you handle these scams in the best way possible.

Trust No One

Scammers will often try to impersonate someone you know or a business you work with. There are even reports of scammers impersonating high-level executives to swindle companies out of house and home. The best thing you can do to identify these types of scams is to follow up directly with the individual using whatever contact information you have on hand outside of the message you received. The reason for this is to guarantee the identity of the individual and to discredit the suspicious request. Always cross-reference these types of messages with the contact information you have on hand, or in the case of someone within your office, possibly even face-to-face.

It’s Too Good (or Bad) to Be True

The promise of prizes can be very intriguing to your employees, especially if they don’t recall signing up for a contest or giveaway. These types of scams are designed to harvest information from victims and potentially spread threats to infrastructures through downloaded attachments. Other times, the threat of legal action for a crime that was not committed can make a user download an attachment. In either case, if it sounds too good or bad to be true, chances are it isn’t.

You Must Act Immediately

If a message is urging you to take immediate action without taking the time to think about things, chances are it’s from a scammer. They might be in a rush to convince you to pay a bill, update financial information, confirm order information, reset a password, and so on. If something is so important that it needs immediate attention, and they are sending you an email, chances are you should be at least a little skeptical of it.

If any of the three conditions outlined above are met, you might be looking at a scammer. If you find yourself in a difficult situation and you need a second opinion, we are more than happy to assist with that. To learn more, reach out to BNMC at (978) 482-2020.