Workalone UK Sometimes, when you work alone, you need a little help

Scams to watch for

There are a lot of scams about that any new businesses (and, indeed, established ones) need to be aware of, and it's true to say that there is a lot of information about them on the Internet, but it's generally quite spread about - hopefully we can start to keep a track of the common ones that small freelance businesses need to be aware of here.

If you find yourself posting "Is this a scam?" to the list, it almost certainly is.

• DomainRenewalScams - Bogus invoices for domain renewal
• DataCollectionServices - False 'Data Protection Act' scam
• CharityAdvertising - Common 'Charity' 'advertising' scams around at the moment (to be done)
• European City Guide an old scam, misleading contract that can be mistaken to be a free offer. Similar scams include Novachannel and Construct Data (Fair Guide)
• Advertising Scams - Scams involving paying for advertising

There's also a some that aren't targeted at businesses as such, but you will come across sooner or later

• AdvanceFeeFraudScams - Requests to transfer money, then an advance fee is requested - good old "419"
• LotteryScams - Your Email won the lottery but they need fees to Transfer your prize - a version of "419"
• MoneyTransferScams - someone in the UK owes them money, so will pay you by bankers draft; you ship an expensive item, then the draft bounces.
• EbayScams - you ship the goods, they don't pay
• MoneyLaunderingScams - you are recruited as a sales agent to transfer money to another country; in fact you are laundering money for them
• OrderProcessingScam - job ad offers work at home, processing orders. They want money before they will send you the details. The details are to do the same.

Read the small print on any invites to advertise.