How to avoid financial scams in your company? Find it out!
To better understand, suppose that your company received a contact from a potential WhatsApp partner, seeking a commercial agreement. And, after evaluating the possibilities, your business chose to carry out a certain negotiation with this contact to avoid financial scams.
However, after paying for the product or service offered, the new partner disappeared. In this case, your company lost the investment it had made — it was, therefore, the victim of a scam.
This situation is more common among individuals, as companies tend to have more robust security processes to prevent fraud. But scams are not always easily identified. Therefore, it is necessary to maintain redoubled attention to avoid the negative impacts that they can cause.
What are the risks of falling into scams?
As you already know, falling into financial scams can bring several damages to your company. The main one is, of course, related to finances. Faced with the loss of money caused by fraud, it can be difficult to deal with the loss and new risks of a scam.
However, in addition to the financial field, customer relationships can also be affected. In many cases, for example, scammers may have access to sensitive business data — including customer information.
A scam can therefore affect the company’s reputation. From this, it can be seen as an institution that does not protect data. Image crises like these can be difficult to overcome, especially for micro and small companies.
How to avoid financial scams in your company?
Now you understand that financial scams are harmful to any business. Therefore, understanding how to avoid them is essential.
Find out below how to protect your company from scammers!
Know the main frauds to avoid financial scams
The first step to avoiding scams is identifying them, right? After all, by knowing what the main risk scenarios are or how scammers operate, it is possible to perceive when your company is under threat.
In this sense, one of the most common scams is phishing. In it, criminals share false information via email, SMS, or other means of contact with the aim of obtaining company data. This could be from their direct request or from downloading malicious files.
Another possible scam is the collection of false tickets. Here, as its name suggests, the company pays a bill that does not exist and the money is forwarded directly to the scammers.
In addition to the above scenarios, another common fraud is card cloning. To protect yourself from all these scams, it is essential to pay attention to the sender of the messages you receive, check the ticket details, and pay attention to the establishments where you use the card.
Avoid sharing data with strangers to Avoid financial scams
To avoid scams, it is also important to watch over company data. This includes avoiding sharing data with people, organizations, or vendors. Even if there is a prior relationship of trust, be careful with the information passed.
Although this tip may seem obvious at first, it is common to find victims of scams that involve data. The main scenario is by links. The company receives contact from someone pretending to be a bank representative, for example, who asks for confirmation of sensitive data.
So be suspicious whenever you’re asked to share information, especially private ones — like passwords or credit card numbers. Typically, this type of information is not requested by phone or email.
Understand the company’s financial procedures
Entering the internal environment, it is necessary to remember that scams do not only come from people outside the organization. It is possible that there are attempts at internal fraud — from employees or people connected to the company.
To avoid being a victim of these frauds, it is necessary to have full knowledge of the procedures used, especially financial ones. After all, when you have a macro view of the processes, it is easier to protect yourself. At this point, be more careful when composing the team responsible for finance.
It is essential that, in addition to being competent, the team is trustworthy. It may also be interesting to request periodic reports on company numbers. That way, you’ll be able to keep up to date on finances and minimize the chances of mistakes.
Use technology to your advantage
Relying on the support of technology is another essential strategy to avoid the chances of a scam. By having software for the financial sector of your company, for example, it is possible to automate several tasks. And this brings greater security to the processes.
In addition, there are systems capable of integrating other aspects of finance — such as accounts payable and receivable. Thus, by making processes less manual, the company is less susceptible to scams such as phishing.
Choose your business partners well
Finally, it is essential that your company makes a good selection of partners. As you will be dealing with many other organizations, such as suppliers, there needs to be a relationship of trust between the parties.
In order to increase security, it is interesting to evaluate the history of the organizations with which your company will form a partnership. It is necessary to know the reputation, the places where it provides or has provided service, etc.
This issue becomes even more important when it involves applying for credit or another financing for your business. Be sure to count on trusted partners,
As we have seen, financial scams can be responsible for a number of negative impacts on your company. Therefore, knowing the main strategies to avoid them can help keep your business safe.
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