Agriculture scam aims at businesses | Scam of the Week

CHICO — The number of business scams alone in the world could keep me doing this column each week for the next 100 years.

This week though, I wanted to turn my attention toward a scam that often tries to sneak its way into the agriculture industry and that is fake invoice scams for goods and services.

There is a lot to manage in the ag industry as it has many moving parts. Most who work in it likely have these moving parts down and have a good understanding of the industry but that doesn’t stop some from trying to take advantage of the business.

One way this shows up is in faux invoices — maybe via email or even physical mail — to try and get a company or small business to redirect payments only to a scam account rather than the company or person that provided the goods and services.

A couple of interesting things about this particular scam: it requires at least some research to pull off, and it’s one that happens far beyond the United States.

This would be a difficult scam to cast a wide net in hopes of getting a payout because the scammer, in order to create a fake invoice, would need to have some knowledge of the companies doing business with one another, otherwise, the invoice’s credibility would obviously be in question if it were just vague listings and a random bill amount.

When researching this scam I also gathered information from the Consumer Council of the United Kingdom so it stretches pretty far beyond our borders. As with any sketchy behavior, if there is a scam out there, a scammer will find a way to conduct it.

If you are a business owner and you receive an invoice, even if you were expecting one, always read it carefully, and if you are still unsure, check with the other party through legitimate means of communication.

Stay safe out there folks.

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Scam of the Week generally runs every Tuesday. Readers are welcome to contact reporter Jake Hutchison to report scams and potential scams they have come in contact with by calling 828-1329 or via email at [email protected].