How to report a small business online scam
NOTE: Due to a sudden spike in scams themed around COVID-19 and Coronavirus, we’re sharing information about the types of scams targeting small businesses as we encounter them. Follow our pages on Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter for updates on new scam types.
If you’ve encountered a COVID-19 or Coronavirus themed scam message or website please consider forwarding it to coronavirus@cynch.com.au, so we can check if this type of scam has been seen before and notify other small businesses (if it is a new type of attack) and to report it to organisations able to take action.
If you wish to receive notifications of any new scam types we see, then, please sign up for our platform or subscribe to our Coronavirus notifications on our main Coronavirus page: https://cynch.com.au/coronavirus
It’s a sad reality, but being scammed happens frequently. In fact, in 2019 Australian small businesses lost $1.4 million to scams across more than 2021 incidents according to the ACCC.
It happens to the best of us, even government officials and cybersecurity professionals have fallen victim, so please know…
You’re not stupid and you shouldn’t feel embarrassed 💪
Cyber-criminal organisations are multi-million dollar businesses employing researchers, professional marketing departments, web designers and even call centres whose job it is to scam people 🤯
To help small businesses reduce this type of crime, it’s imperative that all we report scams to the right places. Just as you would report something suspicious to Crime Stoppers so they can notify other districts and relevant bodies, the same applies to cybercrime.
The quicker something is reported, the faster:
💸Banks can try to get your money back;
🙅♂️‘Takedown’ companies (eg. FraudWatch) can get the site removed and ensure no one else is scammed;
👩🎓Other small businesses can learn about a scam and protect themselves.
Let’s stand together against online scammers.
Many larger corporates and their customers have mechanisms for reporting fake emails, but we know it can be confusing to know where small businesses can do the same. Here is a quick overview to simplify things for small businesses:
If you receive a phone call from someone suspicious
Block the caller on your phone
Let others in your team know to block that number.
If your company has been a victim of a scam and money is involved
(e.g. purchased goods or you shared banking details)
Contact your bank, so they can try and recover the funds for you
Report it to the police who will ask you to provide details on what happened, when and how (remember, their job is to help stop criminals, even online criminals)
Contact / notify your Insurance Company
Report it to https://www.cyber.gov.au/report
Depending on the type of scam - you may want to contact your IT Support team to help check for malware or IDCare who can help you work through customer impacts.
If you’ve been a victim of identity theft or had confidential information stolen
Contact IDCare to help recover your identity and to remove malware
Report it to the police
Contact / notify your Insurance company (they can assist in the investigation of the incident)
Report it to Scamwatch, part of the ACCC.
Once you have reported your scam to the appropriate bodies and when you are ready, it might be a good time to review our protecting your business from online scams tips. You can also find more information in our Cyber Fitness Program.
At Cynch, it is our belief that if we build an ecosystem where small businesses help each other by reporting quickly, then we can be stronger together.
We notify our cyber fitness members of emerging scam typess and other threats that are relevant to small businesses as we hear of them.