Welcome to Businesses Against Scams. In light of recent events concerning COVID-19 (coronavirus), people are working from home more than ever. Increased stress, less opportunities to talk to colleagues and a different working environment are all things that criminals are using to their advantage to commit fraud. Employees are having to make decisions on their own without verification from their colleagues, making businesses more susceptible to scams and fraud.
There are a number of practical steps companies can take to reduce the risk including:
- Supporting people to use stronger passwords and setting up two factor authentication.
- Ensuring staff know how to report problems, especially those related to security.
- Creating ‘How to’ guides for new software and tools staff may be using.
- Using VPNs to allow users to securely access the organisation’s IT services.
Businesses Against Scams has been set up by the National Trading Standards (NTS) Scams Team and includes a number of resources that companies can share with their employees which can educate them on a variety of common business related frauds, these are:
- Government grant and tax rebate scams
- CEO fraud
- Invoice/mandate fraud
- Tech support scams
By completing the below questionnaire, you will be given access to a training session (PowerPoint) that takes around 10 minutes to complete and provides information on these frauds, what to look out for and how to prevent your company from falling victim to them. You will also get a number of Fact Sheets (PDF) that can be used as a refresher for staff members, along with a number of infographics/posters that can be used on social media or within your team.
Please note that these resources are designed to be used with the employees, colleagues and volunteers within your business that have the authority to make financial decisions or have access to private company information. Your entire organisation would benefit from taking the Friends Agaisnt Scams awareness session which covers scams in general and how to protect yourself and your loved ones from falling victim to them. This can be found here.
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