Credit card fraud is an ever-growing problem for small-business owners. Take these steps now to protect your business before it's too late. According to comScore, the first quarter of 2013 saw retail e-commerce sales surpass $50 billion in the U.S., with 10 percent of all discretionary income being spent online. Last year global e-commerce surpassed $1 trillion. While this is great news for small businesses with e-commerce websites, the risk of loss also increases. Cybersource, a payment and … [Read more...]
The Sneakiest Way to Make a Fortune
Opt-out sales generate a whopping $2 billion in revenue every year. It's a totally unethical practice ... yet completely legal. There are two key parts to any sales process: convincing the potential customer to buy what you're selling, and then getting paid. What if there was a way to eliminate both of these steps from your sales cycle? What if you could just go ahead and send something to somebody and automatically get paid for it? That’s exactly what some companies are doing, the sneakiest … [Read more...]
Franchise fraud is a rampant problem. Read how one man lost everything so you can avoid the same fate.
What You Can Learn From a Franchise Scam Victim Franchise fraud is a rampant problem. Read how one man lost everything so you can avoid the same fate. Juan came to me in a near panic, practically begging me to help him with his failing business. He was working over 90 hours per week; he was receiving excellent performance feedback from his customers; the company providing his sales leads kept sending more business his way; yet the business was broke. He had to borrow against his home just to … [Read more...]
The Elderwood Gang Is Using You to Steal Intellectual Property
Hackers have found small businesses to be the perfect gateway to committing crime and steal intellectual property against big companies. The Internet is becoming a very dangerous place to do business and small companies are the most vulnerable. Leading security corporation Symantec released its 2013 Internet Security Threat Report recently and the results are chilling. The number of targeted cyber attacks rose 42 percent last year. There are now nearly 120 such attacks every day around the … [Read more...]
Small business owners become the target of scams because of the traits that make them successful.
New Twist On Get Rich Quick Targets Small Businesses Small business owners become the target of scams. Business owners already have a propensity towards risky activities. They also have a taste for rewards commensurate with the risk they undertake. This combination of traits have made them increasingly appealing targets of fraudsters. The timing is also right. After so many years of lackluster results, many entrepreneurs are finally looking for higher returns and their judgement may be … [Read more...]
3 Ways to Outsmart Financial Scammers
Financial scam arists rely on one thing to succeed and it isn't lack of financial knowledge. For someone to fall victim to a financial fraud, most people assume that a lack of financial literacy is the cause. But in a study co-sponsored by FINRA, it turns out that victims of financial fraud tend to have more financial knowledge than the general public. These victims were indeed illiterate in the art of persuasion. In an interview of Doug Shedel author of “Outsmarting the Scam Artist," it's … [Read more...]
Massive SBA Loan Fraudster Pleads Guilty
Joon Park promised to help small businesses obtain SBA-backed loans. Instead he scammed banks and his clients. SBA Loan Fraudster Pleads Guilty Small-business owners have to work very hard to secure financing for their businesses. It is extremely disappointing when people who claim to help small businesses obtain loans turn out to be nothing more than scam artists. One such person, Joon Park, owner of Jade Capital & Investments, LLC, plead guilty to conspiracy to commit bank fraud … [Read more...]
Will Internet Cafes Soon Be Illegal?
A $300 million fraud may lead to the banning of Internet cafes. Florida is reeling from a gambling scandal involving hundreds of millions of dollars, which has led to dozens of arrests and the resignation of the state’s lieutenant governor. In what has to be one of the largest, simplest and most clever frauds in recent memory, a large nonprofit organization turned a network of Internet cafes into virtual casinos. Now Florida’s legislature wants to make all Internet cafes illegal. If other state … [Read more...]
Scam Alert: Latest Scam to Target Small-Business Owners
Small business owners are ripe targets for scam artists. A simple yet effective Scam to Target Small-Business Owners -- bogus bills. Small-business owners are very busy people, and scam artists know this makes them good targets. An old fraud targeting busy business owners has been making a comeback as of late. The scam couldn’t be simpler: Fraudsters send fake invoices to small-business owners and hope that they’ll just pay it without verifying whether it's genuine or not. The perpetrators play … [Read more...]
Stay Alert for Sandy-Related Scams
OPEN finance expert Mike Periu on the different types of scams and fraud that surface after a disaster like Hurricane Sandy, Stay Aler for Sandy-Related Scams. Most people respond to tragedies like Hurricane Sandy with a natural desire to help others through difficult times. A small segment of the population, however, responds differently; they see a ripe opportunity to commit fraud. In the days before Sandy hit, more than 1,000 Sandy-related domain names were registered. Many of these may be … [Read more...]