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Small businesses should watch for scams that hide inside normal work: invoices, customer payments, utility calls, government-looking notices, vendor offers, email, text messages and tech-support alerts. The safest response is to pause, check the request against your own records, and verify it using contact details your business already trusts—not details supplied in the message or call.
What scams should small businesses look out for?
The FTC’s Scams and Your Small Business: A Guide for Business advises owners to learn the warning signs. These approaches often borrow the language and timing of routine business activity, then steer an employee toward an unplanned payment, disclosure or grant of access.
| Approach | Warning signs | Safer first step |
|---|---|---|
| Fake invoice or unordered goods | A bill arrives for a service, supply, domain registration or product no one remembers ordering; a caller may first confirm an address or supposed order. | Match the bill to purchase orders, delivery records and the vendor details already on file before paying. |
| Government, utility or business impersonation | A caller, email or letter threatens a shutoff, fine, license issue, trademark loss or lawsuit unless you act immediately or provide information. | Find the agency or company’s official contact independently and ask whether the notice or demand is real. |
| Directory or advertising offer | A “free” listing or an information-confirmation call is followed by an invoice for a directory or advertising service the business did not knowingly order. | Check whether anyone authorized the service and requested the purchase; do not treat a caller’s confirmation as an order record. |
| Tech-support call or pop-up | An alarming warning claims a computer has a security problem and pushes payment or remote access. | Do not call numbers shown in an unexpected alert or grant remote access. Contact your established IT support through known details. |
| Phishing or social engineering | An email, text or call appears to come from a manager, vendor or other trusted source and urges a transfer, password disclosure or sensitive-data sharing. | Verify unusual instructions with the supposed sender through a separate, known channel. Do not use contact details included in the request. |
| Fake-check overpayment | A purported customer sends more than the amount due and asks you to refund the difference before the check has been confirmed as genuine. | Do not return the excess. Ask your bank about the check and wait for confirmation; an available balance alone does not establish that a check is valid. |
| Coaching, processing or equipment-leasing pitch | A seller promises extraordinary success, obscures terms in fine print, pressures you to sign blank documents or will not provide contract copies. | Slow down and review the complete written terms before signing. A sales pitch is not proof of fraud, but these are reasons to investigate carefully. |
How can I tell if a business invoice is fake?
Start with your own purchasing trail, not the invoice’s branding or a caller’s confidence. Compare the bill with the order, contract, delivery record and the vendor’s identity and payment details already stored by the business. Ask the employee responsible for the purchase whether it was authorized. Treat an invoice for something unrequested—or goods that arrived without a valid order—as a dispute to verify, not an obligation to pay.
Be especially cautious if a caller first gets someone to confirm an address or order and then uses that conversation to claim the business agreed to buy something. Keep a written approval process for purchases and route unfamiliar bills to the person authorized to approve them. The FTC’s May 2026 alert on fake invoices is a useful reference for this pattern.
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How do I verify a government notice or payment request?
Do not rely on caller ID, a return number, a reply address or a link in the notice as proof of identity. Independently locate the real agency or utility’s contact information—using a record your business already has or the organization’s official site—and ask whether the demand exists. Apply the same check to a supposed vendor, supervisor or customer asking for an unusual payment or sensitive information.
Threats of immediate disconnection, fines, lost rights or legal action are pressure tactics, not verification. A demand to pay by wire transfer, cryptocurrency or gift card is a major red flag. Do not pay or disclose information while the request remains unverified.
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What makes an email, text or call suspicious?
Phishing messages are designed to look as if they come from a trusted source. CISA’s 2024 phishing guidance flags urgent or emotional language, a sender address that does not match the claimed identity, requests for financial or personal information, and unexpected attachments. A familiar name or logo does not establish that a message is genuine.
- Check the full sender address and whether the request fits the person’s normal role and process.
- Be wary of unexpected links, attachments or downloads, especially when the message demands immediate action.
- Never send a password or sensitive information by email solely because a message appears to come from a manager.
- For an unusual transfer or account change, confirm through a separate channel using contact information already on file.
Social engineering can also happen by phone or in person. Malware may be delivered through a deceptive message, and ransomware can lock business files and demand payment. A request that appears to come from a supervisor still needs the normal approval and verification checks.
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What should staff do when a request feels wrong?
- Pause the transaction. Do not click, open, download, transfer money, refund an overpayment, share credentials or grant access while the request is uncertain.
- Check internal records. Look for the purchase order, contract, delivery, approved vendor record or prior instructions that should support the request.
- Verify independently. Contact the person or organization using a number, address or channel already known to the business. For a supervisor’s unusual request, use a different channel from the one that delivered it.
- Escalate through the business’s process. Have a designated manager review unfamiliar invoices, payment changes, sensitive-data requests and access requests.
- Report suspicious messages. Use the email platform’s reporting feature, notify the real organization through independently located contact details when appropriate, and delete the message without interacting with its links or attachments. CISA recommends reporting suspicious messages and deleting them.
- Report suspected fraud. The FTC accepts reports at ReportFraud.ftc.gov; alert your state attorney general as appropriate.
How can a small business make verification routine?
Put the checks into written procedures rather than relying on individual judgment under pressure. Define who can approve purchases and invoices, require bills to match orders and known vendors, and specify a separate-channel confirmation for unusual payment instructions or requests for credentials. Train staff to recognize pressure tactics and to report questionable requests without being pushed into acting quickly.
These habits apply across email, phone, mail, text and pop-ups: stop, check the business record, and verify with a trusted contact path. Official FTC and CISA guidance describes warning signs and controls, but does not establish how prevalent any one scam is; avoid assuming a tactic is the most common based on an alarming message alone.
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- Video previews – Record a few extra seconds before every motion event with Advanced Pre-Roll to get a more complete picture of what happened.
- Privacy at your fingertips – Turn off your camera and mic with the manual Privacy Cover, then reactivate with a simple swivel.
- Get important alerts – Get real-time alerts when the camera detects movement, and choose exactly what your camera covers so you only get notified above movement that matters.
- Versatile mounting options – Find the perfect angle on a table, or mount up high with the flexible swivel mount. Indoor Cam is plug-in, making it easy to move where you need it.
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