Business fraud activities prevalent in the marketplace today

We've all become well educated on the increasingly bold moves fraudsters take to steal personal identities to secure jobs, cars, homes and more; but what about business-to-business fraud? As a small business owner, how much thought do you give to fraud protection for your business?

You have much to fear and even more to lose if you become a victim of commercial fraud. Approximately 30 percent of all business credit losses are attributed to some type of misleading or fraudulent information. How do these fraudsters operate?

• "Bustouts" or "overbuys" — These terms describe criminal activity designed to obtain large amounts of merchandise without paying for it.
• Hit and run — A swindler moves into a location and orders merchandise COD, paying with phony certified or cashier's checks. By the time the check bounces, the "skip artist" has moved on to a new location to repeat the fraud.
• Advanced fee scams — An up-front payment is obtained for services to be rendered after, supposedly to cover costs. This advance fee is accepted with no intention of providing the service.

The net result is that financial damages from these and other business scams far overshadow losses from consumer fraud. On average, losses are three to 10 times higher.