Small business scams: a preliminary overview and investigation

This paper provides an overview of the current level of understanding about scams perpetrated against small businesses, and also reports on a preliminary study which highlights various forms of the phenomenon. A scam is a form of fraudulent, illegal activity that invites potential victims to accept...

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Main Authors: Weber, Paull, Schaper, Michael, Teo, Stephen, Geneste, Louis
Other Authors: Anon
Format: Conference Paper
Published: International Council for Small Business 2011
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/47853
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author Weber, Paull
Schaper, Michael
Teo, Stephen
Geneste, Louis
author2 Anon
author_facet Anon
Weber, Paull
Schaper, Michael
Teo, Stephen
Geneste, Louis
author_sort Weber, Paull
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description This paper provides an overview of the current level of understanding about scams perpetrated against small businesses, and also reports on a preliminary study which highlights various forms of the phenomenon. A scam is a form of fraudulent, illegal activity that invites potential victims to accept an offer which leads to the loss of financial, organisational or personal resources. The limited research evidence available to date suggests that small businesses are particularly vulnerable to this type of criminal activity, are less likely to report such events, are likely to be subject to repeat attacks, and are particularly susceptible to online approaches. The ten cases reported in this paper are suggestive of a relatively high level of occurrence and a surprisingly high level of ignorance of the risks that these scams represent. A future research agenda is outlined.
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institution Curtin University Malaysia
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last_indexed 2025-11-14T09:36:12Z
publishDate 2011
publisher International Council for Small Business
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spelling curtin-20.500.11937-478532017-01-30T15:36:08Z Small business scams: a preliminary overview and investigation Weber, Paull Schaper, Michael Teo, Stephen Geneste, Louis Anon This paper provides an overview of the current level of understanding about scams perpetrated against small businesses, and also reports on a preliminary study which highlights various forms of the phenomenon. A scam is a form of fraudulent, illegal activity that invites potential victims to accept an offer which leads to the loss of financial, organisational or personal resources. The limited research evidence available to date suggests that small businesses are particularly vulnerable to this type of criminal activity, are less likely to report such events, are likely to be subject to repeat attacks, and are particularly susceptible to online approaches. The ten cases reported in this paper are suggestive of a relatively high level of occurrence and a surprisingly high level of ignorance of the risks that these scams represent. A future research agenda is outlined. 2011 Conference Paper http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/47853 International Council for Small Business fulltext
spellingShingle Weber, Paull
Schaper, Michael
Teo, Stephen
Geneste, Louis
Small business scams: a preliminary overview and investigation
title Small business scams: a preliminary overview and investigation
title_full Small business scams: a preliminary overview and investigation
title_fullStr Small business scams: a preliminary overview and investigation
title_full_unstemmed Small business scams: a preliminary overview and investigation
title_short Small business scams: a preliminary overview and investigation
title_sort small business scams: a preliminary overview and investigation
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/47853