Something smelled fishy to George Sarris. When the 49-year-old
owner of The Fish Market Restaurant in Birmingham, Alabama, opened
a letter from a disgruntled customer demanding a $6.89 refund, his
gut told him to check it out. He didn't recall the customer
and, after a few phone calls, realized that the author of the
letter was nowhere to be found. Then, Sarris started hearing that
similar letters were popping up in eateries all over town. In fact,
the same "customer" who had written to Sarris had
blanketed other area restaurants with demands for refunds.
"He didn't ask for a lot of money, so some people would
probably send it, no questions asked," says Sarris. "If
he sent out 1,000 letters and got half back, that's over
$3,000."
Sarris is just one of thousands of entrepreneurs targeted by
scam artists each year. In fact, the Association of Certified
Fraud Examiners estimates that fraud, ranging from bogus
billing and dishonest direct mail to sales scams, costs U.S.
businesses more than $400 billion annually. Shirley Rooker,
president of Call for Action Inc., a nonprofit scam-busting
organization in Bethesda, Maryland, thinks more businesses need to
take the problem seriously.
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"I don't think businesses think in terms of being
victims of fraud," Rooker says. You must be aware that scam
artists are threatening businesses like yours, often preying on
employees who may be less likely than you to question their
smooth-as-ice approach. Warns Rooker, "Often, the weak point
is the person answering the phone who unknowingly gives out
information."
Originally published in the January 2002 issue of Entrepreneur Magazine
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