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Common Small Business Scams

MSNBC.com has a very interesting on some of the common scams preying small business owners that you need to be aware of. I have heard of some of these schemes for the past few years, but it is still worth keeping in mind lest you be victimized.

Here are some of the scams the article talks about and what to do to avoid becoming victimized

• sending a check returning the amount “overpaid”
• paying advanced fees for supposed “valuations”
• bogus invoices
• blue sky scams in the vending industry

I’m not too proud to admit that we were once hit by a scam. Someone ordered text link advertising from us – the website looked extremely professional and their service seems to be legit. After several months, we got hit by a chargeback because we were apparently paid with a stolen credit card. The website soon disappeared with a note from their web hosting that the site has not paid their fees.

That incident taught us to really examine every order with a finetooth comb. In hindsight, there were signs but we ignored it — e.g. the billing address for the card is Ohio but the company’s address is in NY, the company address when checked with MapQuest doesn’t exist, the phone number given was in NY, and the email address is just Yahoo. But I suppose you live and learn

Read the article at MSNBC and protect your business from scams