Avoiding crime and fraud in international trade

It is estimated that every year in the UK identity fraud costs more than £2.7 billion and affects over 1.8million people. Organised criminals attempt to steal the identity of honest businesses so that they can commit credit card and online banking fraud. ID scams are getting more sophisticated and harder to detect.

Report business document identity fraud.

IT attacks

Many attacks may come through your business IT system. Thieves may try to access usernames, passwords and credit card details through 'malware' such as computer viruses, worms, Trojans, spyware or adware. Read more about IT security.

Taking action to prevent fraud

Use these simple ways to protect your business against ID fraud:

• If your plastic cards are lost or stolen, cancel them immediately. Keep a note of the emergency numbers you should call.
• Be careful how you dispose of waste paper, particularly blank headed paper and financial correspondence.
• Tear up or shred statements, invoices to suppliers and signed correspondence that you no longer need.
• Never disclose or email financial details unless you're absolutely confident you know who you're speaking to or that the website you're using is secure.
• Sign up to the Protected Online Filing (PROOF) service, a free, secure online-filing scheme.
• Under the Data Protection Act, you cannot discard intact customer, staff, and supplier information, so you should be sure to shred this too.
• Don't take a great-sounding business offer for granted. Check the authenticity of the organisation through regulatory bodies.
• Be vigilant