Your business could be targeted by con artists and scammers.

Businesses are built on relationships with your suppliers, with your bank and with your customers. Scammers may sometimes try to use those relationships to take advantage of your business.

As an example, say you receive an offer to advertise with a well-known directory, or one of your suppliers has a limited time special offer. This is a pretty general occurrence in your day-to-day business. However, when you get the invoice, you see that you are being charged much more than expected. Take a closer look at that invoice. Perhaps, the address or phone number is wrong. Maybe the company logo looks familiar, but appears to be subtly different. At this point, you realize you haven't been dealing with the company you thought you were. You have been targeted in a scam.

Scammers are counting on you to trust the businesses you regularly deal with and for your business practices to be so routine that it is easy to miss minor details. A little bit of caution can go a long way to protecting your business.

There are numerous online resources to help you identify and protect yourself from fraud. The Canadian Anti-Fraud Call Centre helps you recognize, report and stop fraud. As well, the Canadian Council of Better Business Bureaus has information about fraud and directories, so you can find out if a business or charity is legitimate or not. From your bank's perspective, the Fraud and Security page of the Canadian Bankers Association also provides background to help you combat bank-related criminal activity.

For more information, check out our page on Security and Fraud.