Give your team a scam lecture

This article first appeared on May 29, 2011

The end of the financial year means so many things to so many people. For many, it’s a time of closing budgets. For others, it’s a time of celebration of jobs well done. For others, it’s a frantic rush to get their tax affairs sorted.

But for scammers, the end of the financial year is party time.

Cash is always a little tight in businesses and households at this time and that provides a perfect opportunity.

In recent days we’ve had warnings about scams involving people posing as the Tax Office (“pay us a transaction fee and we’ll give you a tax refund”) and IT support (“give us your credit card details and we’ll fix the bugs in your computer”).

There are plenty of others. The classic for SMEs to watch is the invoice that arrives from an online or offline directory you’ve never heard of asking for payment for an ad you’ve never seen – these are surprisingly effective, given they target very busy entrepreneurs!

The point is, beware of scam season. Let your staff know to be on the lookout for dodgy invoices and offers that require them to provide personal details or credit card details.

There is no worse feeling than losing money this way.

Get it done – today!