Business
Scams Affecting Businesses
Scams are not only aimed at consumers – they are also aimed at businesses, small businesses in particular are regularly targeted by conmen...
If you run a business it may be worth spending some time familiarising yourself with the following scam examples - there may be variations and new scams appear all the time, but by staying vigilant and ensuring you are careful when entering contracts, you could avoid becoming a victim....
- Business Advertising Scams
- Unsolicited goods
- Cheque Scams
- Internet website registration
- Business Rates Scams
Businesses regularly lose money to this scam and unfortunately it rears it's ugly head regularly with many variations...
Your company is contacted by phone asking whether it wishes to place an advertisement in a directory, calendar, diary etc. There is often some claim that that this is for the benefit of a good cause such as a children’s charity, the police or the emergency services. If you say no or ask for further information only, you are still sent an invoice. If you ring to complain about this you are told that the advertisement company has a recording of you verbally agreeing to a contract. You are then likely to receive a series of harassing letters or phone calls threatening legal action or unless you pay the “debt”. Some of the letters will supposedly be from solicitors or debt collectors....For full information and advice on spotting and avoiding this type of scam, please read our Business Advertising Scams - Seven Signs 
(95KB - pdf help) Guide
Trading Standards suggest that if you have been targeted by one of these companies billing you for services you have not agreed to, you do not pay them any money and do not engage them in any telephone conversations.
Your business receives several items it has not ordered together with a large bill and subsequent threats of legal action. It is a criminal offence to attempt to invoice someone for goods they have not ordered and as no contract exists there is no way payment is legally enforceable. Often the company will attempt to get around this by ringing in the hope of speaking to a junior employee and will then state they are ringing to confirm the order, whatever is said they will claim that this constitutes a binding contract. Other times they will ring and imply that they are your regular supplier. The goods supplied are either of a higher cost or in far greater quantity to what you want.
Like the advertising directory scam this works on the basis that some companies will pay money on the threat of legal action whether or not there is any chance of its success.
A potential buyer contacts you agreeing to pay for whatever you are offering, however for some reason they have paid a cheque which is for more than the amount you require. They then ask you to pay them back the excess amount. Some time after you pay them it will turn out that the cheque they paid you with bounces, was forged or was stolen, leaving you out of pocket.
Someone rings you out of the blue claiming that a third party is trying to register the name of your company as their web-site domain name. You have to pay them a sum of money quickly to stop this happening. Whether or not the company actually performs the service, they will charge considerably more than what it would have cost you to register the name yourself. By creating a false sense of urgency they persuade those with limited knowledge of the internet to pay over the odds for a service they could have performed themselves. Needless to say the mysterious third party who was trying to register the domain name is never heard of again.
You are approached by a salesman who claims that for a fee he will be able to get a reduction in your business rates. After the money is paid he is never heard from again and your rates stay the same..
For further information on the types of scams affecting business visit the Office of Fair Trading's Scam Warning Page.
To register your company with the telephone preference for corporate organisations.
For advice on what to do if you think your business has been scammed call our trading standards business advice line on 01392 381381
