Schaper says one of the biggest side effects of online shopping scams is businesses becoming disillusioned.
“Small business owners are becoming a lot more reticent about doing online trade. This is basically cutting them out of where the market is going to,” he says.
“It also has the potential to scare away customers. Consumers have the choice of dealing with a big established brand, or an interesting little retailer, but the big one you know will be safe.”
Schaper says to instil consumers with confidence, small businesses should provide a physical street address if possible to let them know they’re not dealing with a “faceless business”. Businesses should also have verifiable online security systems, offer multiple payment channels and have their online firewalls up-to-date.
Social media is increasingly allowing scammers to access work computer networks.
Weber says if staff use social media from office computers, it opens up the business’s system to hackers.
“Businesses should consider their policy around social media at work.
“It’s social media use in the workplace which is allowing Trojan horses and viruses to infiltrate business systems,” Weber says.
“In small business there is a trend for people to bring their own hardware to work and access the work network. This adds an extra security risk.”
In terms of individuals, scammers will hack into a person’s account and monitor their Facebook interactions until the right time to strike.
In 2012, the ACCC received 172 reports of social networking and email account hacking.
“In one case, a person was heading overseas for a week and he was worried his house would be burgled, so he told people on Facebook he was going away,” Weber says.
“Then, his friends and family received a message from his Facebook account saying he was stuck somewhere overseas and the scammer was able to give a legitimate reason why.”
The scam idea in itself is not a new one, but with the amount of information currently available on social media, it adds a layer of legitimacy which can cause people to become unstuck.
Schaper says generally the more information which publically exists about individuals or businesses, the easier it is for them to be impersonated.
“Scammers are the ultimate entrepreneurs. Scams have gone from faxes, to email and now to phones and going forward social media will be increasingly used as a tool,” he says.
“Each time there is a new tool, there is a new scammer. The more information you give out, the easier it is for a scammer to understand you and to construct a story which is plausible.”
In 2013, Schaper says one of the most common types of scam the ACCC received complaints about was fake directory listings.
Recently the Yellow Pages scam re-emerged, with more than 90 complaints made to the ACCC by early August.
The scam also saw an old-school method re-emerge, as faxes were sent to small businesses asking for confirmation of their contact details. In reality the fine print revealed it was asking them to sign up to an online business directory service for a minimum cost of $99 a month for two years.
This business represented itself as ‘Yellow Page Australia’ or ‘Open Business Directory’, when it was actually a sham.
Schaper says other fake directory scams occurring at the moment include health practitioner and optometrist directories and some businesses get tricked into signing away thousands of dollars.
“They’re under a huge amount of time pressure and with this scam they’re doing something which looks reasonably legitimate,” he says.
“If you’re going to check something to see if it’s legitimate, don’t look at the URLs of the suspicious email, go to the business through a legitimate contact point. Often the scammer will have set up fake phone numbers and websites.”
Weber says businesses also need to be wary of fake grants.
“This is where there is information on grants, often real grants, but the information the scammers provide is fake,” he says.
Scammers will often impersonate various government departments and request a fee before they release the grant funds to you. Scammers have also been known to say they operate the government’s GrantsLINK directory website, but in reality this site does not provide grants funding and is not affiliated with the government.
Another scheme which targets small business is scammers claiming to have ‘useful tips’ on winning tenders in specific industries.
“They will ask you to pay a fee and say they will provide you with tips. First of all you’ve broken the law by doing this as it’s considered unconscionable conduct,” Weber says.
“Secondly, after you’ve sent them the money, you don’t receive the tips.”
Equally, business ‘opportunities’ which rely on an upfront payment are worth scrutinising before investing.
When receiving any emails from ‘regular suppliers’, it’s also worth taking a sceptical view. Emails promoting ‘special offers’ or ‘for a limited time only’ deals should be treated with caution as it’s likely the supplies will be non-existent, or of a poor quality and overpriced.
When questioning the legitimacy of a business, Weber says to spend some time researching the company rather than diving in head first.
“If you’re approached by anybody, take the business name and put in a Google search with the word scam after it – if it’s a scam, you probably won’t be the first one to be targeted. The second thing is to use Google Earth and find a street image of their address location and see if it’s the same organisation,” he says.
“If you’re corresponding with the business, also think about using different communication systems. So if the scammer has contacted you over email, perhaps give the business a call using a number independently sourced,” he says.
Ultimately, if it seems too good to be true, it probably is.
If you think you’ve been the victim of a scam, or you’ve been approached by a scammer, contact the ACCC’s SCAMwatch or the federal government’s GrantsLINK.
