Melissa Clarke: A growing number of small businesses are being targeted by a very modern type of theft known as fraudulent chargebacks. For businesses already struggling with inflation and changes to debit and credit card surcharges, this new type of fraud is taking a toll. Business reporter Adelaide Miller reports.
Adelaide Miller : Bronte Goodieson didn’t know what a chargeback was until hundreds of dollars were taken out of her account. The local artist from Sydney had sent off three paintings to an online customer in July last year when she got an email flagging a problem with the order.
Bronte Goodieson: It was like the Sunday afternoon, I was just on a walk and I was checking my emails and it was like $460 is going back to this customer. So I like checked it, I was like yeah the post number’s there, I packed it and they haven’t emailed me.
Adelaide Miller : She is one of the many…
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Cyber fraud uses technology as the primary weapon. It is highly scalable and can be conducted from anywhere in the world.
- Phishing/Smishing/Vishing: Using deceptive emails (phishing), text messages (smishing), or phone calls (vishing) to trick victims into clicking malicious links or revealing sensitive data.
- Business Email Compromise (BEC): A high-value scam where a criminal impersonates a CEO or high-level executive via a “spoofed” email address to trick a staff member into making an urgent, unauthorized wire transfer.