Tradesmen – Defend yourselves against scammers

Tradesmen can be at risk of Cyber-crime and here’s why…

Tradesmen should be vigilant, especially when self-employed, one wrong click of an email or letting your financial information fall into the wrong hands can leave you vulnerable to cyber-crime.

Example of Cyber Crime:
In the summer of 2018, a tradesman local to Northern Ireland fell victim to one of these attacks when his emails were infiltrated by hackers. They used his account to email one of his customers, posing as the tradesman, and asked them to pay the remainder of the balance owed to him into a new bank account. Having no reason to suspect foul play, the customer paid the remainder into this new account which belonged to the hacker.

Luckily for the tradesman, the fraud was detected in time and the customer was able to cancel the transaction. However, this isn’t always the case.

If payments made by customers are done so willingly, banks are not obligated to reverse or reimburse payments, regardless of any irregularities. People who have been affected in the past have lost large sums of money from this, as much as £25,000 in some instances.

Here are some tips to try and protect yourself from cyber-attacks,:

1) Use a strong password and try to avoid guessable family or pet names and use different passwords for different accounts.

2) Try to use two-step identification where possible to create an extra layer of security against a possible cyber-attack.

3) It’s wise to agree on any payment terms with your customer in advance and inform them that any changes will need to be agreed on either face to face or by mail.

If the worst should happen and you do get caught out by scammers or a cyber-attack, you can stay safeguarded with the right insurance. This will cover you for business interruption, reputational damage and numerous other factors resulting in financial loss.

Talk to us at William Taylor to find out more.