The Better Business Bureau (BBB) is warning Lower Mainland business owners its name is being used as part of a scam.
In a press release, the BBB said callers claiming to be from the “Better Business Bureau Vancouver” is asking businesses about their plans to move. The BBB said there was a similar scam in April 2015 when the caller claimed to represent the “B.C. Business Development Office, formerly BBB.” The bureau looked into it and found no such organization existed.
The BBB said the callers appear to be collecting information about businesses such as the size of their operations, number of employees and whether the business intends to relocate.
“Naturally, we are concerned about the resurgence of this scam as BBB's name as an agency trusted by both businesses and consumers is being used to deceive business owners into sharing information,” said BBB community and public relations manager Karla Davis in the release.
“These calls are not only annoying and invasive, but the use of BBB's name is illegal. The information being requested by the callers suggests that this scam is likely to be either a strategy to generate sales leads for moving companies, prior to the start of the moving season in May, or part of a directory scam.”
In the directory scam, the caller claims to represent a business or organization looking to update its directory or contact list. The scammer will repeat the information and prompt the employee to confirm the listing. A few weeks later, the business will receive an invoice for several hundred dollars for an ad or listing in the directory. When businesses call to complain, they’re told an employee verbally confirmed the placement. In many cases they play back an altered version of the conversation to make it sound like the employee agreed to the charge, although all he or she was doing was confirming the information’s accuracy. Some businesses receive a follow-up call from a moving company.
“These scam calls have been happening on and off for several years, and in some instances, they have even pretended to be from Canada Revenue Agency or some other government office that is doing a survey,” said Davis.
The numbers that show up on call display have usually been masked or disguised to look like another number and are difficult to track.
The BBB advises businesses and its employees to ignore the calls or hang up if they start asking these type of questions, to ensure staff are aware of these scams, encourage staff to ask questions and keep information private until the caller’s legitimacy can be verified, and end the call if any threats are made.
Anyone with concerns about the scam can contact the BBB at 604-682-2711 or go online to bbb.org to file a report on Scam Tracker.
