One of the most frustrating things about owning a business is the vast number of telephone scammers who call our business phone. Every. Single. Day!
Being in a business service where it is essential for us to take calls in order to make arrangements with potential clients, we have to answer every call, especially now that these scammers seem to be wising up and will call on a mobile number so not one we can choose to ignore (like the obvious 0800 numbers). We have since saved the continuous culprits under various forms of "don't answer" so as to conserve us some energy!
What I really want to talk about though, is what to be careful of saying to them over the phone. If you say 'yes' to something on a business phone and that phone call is being recorded, you may find yourself in a binding contract! They will often call in relation to advertising opportunities with the big companies such as Google, Facebook or Yell, to the unaware it's easy to be warped in by this, especially if you're a new business and want to explore every advertising opportunity available to you. These are all scams though. You can advertise on Google through Google adwords which is free to set up and then from there you will pay by click, they even allow you to set a monthly budget. As far as advertising on Facebook goes, just don't agree to anything over the phone. We don't have an advert on Facebook, we just post our page around on various groups; however, I assume the set up for an advert is similar to everywhere else and can be done online. Yell offers free advertisement but they may call you concerning the advert and then you may find yourself 'promoting' the ad for a fee, even though there is no need to.
As a business owner you will come across such calls, very likely on a daily basis. If you find yourself talking to one of these lovely people (which you will) just tell them you are not interested or tell them to email you (which they won't because they can't trap you in a contract over email!). Do not agree to anything over the phone (I can't stress this enough) as only personal phones are protected from this, agreeing to such a thing on a business phone could land you in a contract. I would recommend purchasing a separate phone as your business phone so as to have personal affairs dealt with on your personal phone.
These companies have several alias's and several different numbers, they will often ring on a mobile (as those are seen as trusted numbers) but don't be fooled by this. Don't give these scammers the time of day and, remember, just say NO!
www.4pawswalkies.co.uk
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