Financial fraud scams: protect your workforce today

In the digital world, there have never been more ways for your staff to lose money from a huge variety of sophisticated scams, frauds and dishonest activity. It may feel like it’s something that only happens to other people, but there are ways to ensure your company and staff are fully on-board and savvy when it comes to financial fraud scams.

Sound scary? It’s easier to prevent than you’d think. The best way to protect your workforce is by providing information, as well as proactive action and vigilance. Here are just a few scams you should encourage your staff to keep an eye out for:

Do I really know you?

You receive an email from an account claiming to be your boss or someone you know requesting that you open the attached file. How many of us would think twice about double-clicking on that attachment if the order has come from up above? This is one of the sneaky ways that fraudsters can get access to your computer via the download of malware. The tell-tale ways to spot a fraud email are to check the attachment size before downloading, take a look at the quality of language within the email and of course, confirm that the email has been received from the correct address.

On the phone

Somehow, it’s much easier to believe what you hear over the phone than in an email. That’s why these scams can be trickier to spot; especially when scammers do their best to put people in panic mode over potential issues with their bank account or credit card.  Always say you will call back in this instance as better safe than sorry and most firms answer their fraud/lost card lines quickly and efficiently.  Keep the fraud and lost card numbers in your phone.  

Congratulations, you’ve won!

One of the oldest tricks in the book, but still an effective way to gain access to people’s money. There’s nothing more exciting than winning a competition, especially if it seems to be a great deal of money. However, before you get too excited, consider the following: is it an official email address? What details are they asking from you? More importantly, have you ever even entered this competition?

Feeling more informed? If you’re looking for further information and support for protecting your staff from fraud, get in contact with us today. We have numerous courses and webinars tailored for businesses to help you keep both your organisation and your workforce safe, including our Avoiding Fraud and Identity Theft course.  Making your employees more aware of personal fraud will benefit them and your business.