BBB has recently been informed by local businesses that they are receiving what appears to be a invoicing scam. A renewal invoice for webhosting has been sent to businesses via email. In the cases reported to BBB the web domain listed on the invoice is unknown to the business. One business reported that after doing some research they discovered that the web domain they were being invoiced for is still publically available, and does not show as being registered to any person or business.
BBB is reminding businesses to carefully review all invoices before paying them. Scam artists often target busy companies with fake invoices, in hopes that they will slip through the bookkeeping cracks and be paid before the company realizes they’ve been duped. Be sure to have systems in place to carefully cross reference bills with supplies and services acquired by your company. Every year BBB sees businesses and consumers targeted with similar invoice scams by email, fax and mail. Be sure to educate your staff on how to identify invoicing scams.
If your business becomes the target of any scam please inform BBB (at info@vi.bbb.org) so we can alert other businesses in our region.