Part 04
Fraud and safety
A one-person export business runs on one mailbox. That makes it a good target: if someone gets into your email, or convincingly pretends to be you, they can redirect a buyer's payment or collect your logins. Most of these attacks are stopped by a few habits, not by special software.
The habits that stop most of it
- Turn on two-step sign-in for your email and any marketplace account.
- Never confirm a change of bank details by replying to the email that asked for it. Call a number you already had. Details in bank detail change fraud.
- Don't open "order" or "payment" attachments from people you've never dealt with, and never sign in through a link in an email. See fake inquiries and phishing.
- Write your own bank details in one place, your proforma invoice, and tell buyers they will never change by email.
- Prefer payment terms that don't leave you shipping before you're paid, at least with a new buyer.
Spotting a suspicious inquiry before you even reply is covered on relaysolo.com, in the red-flags section of how to reply to a new inquiry. Free sample requests are another place where fake buyers show up.
Guides in this part
- 04 · Fraud and safetyBank detail change fraud: how it works and how to stop itHow a fake 'new bank account' email diverts a buyer's payment, the warning signs, and what to do in the first hour.
- 04 · Fraud and safetyFake inquiries and phishing aimed at exportersMalicious 'order' attachments, fake login pages, overpayment refunds, domain-name and directory invoices, and how to check a buyer is real.
Other parts of the handbook
- 01 · Quoting and trade terms: Incoterms 2020.
- 02 · Getting paid: letters of credit.
- 03 · Samples, orders and documents: delay and price-increase emails.
- 05 · Working across markets: holidays (fraudsters like a long weekend), plain English.
How these guides are researched and checked: about this handbook.