Many of you are familiar with the granparent or distressed loved one scam. It's when you receive a call or e-mail from a scammer claiming they are "your favorite grandchild" or a friend of yours that is in trouble and needs money for a plane ticket, hotel for the night, etc. Contacting them back by phone is impossible and the situation is urgent so you're supposed to wire the money immediately. Of course you lose the money and your friend/grandchild knows nothing about this.

We had an Accreditd Business e-mail us yesterday saying they received an e-mail supposedly from a business associate that they knew worked overseas. This person apparently had their wallet or purse stolen which conveniently had their passport in it so they can't get back home. They don't want to be in a limbo state in a foreign country, so they wanted our Accredited Business to wire money to them to take care of the problem. They couldn't be reached by phone so our AB just needed to trust they would be paid back.

Luckily our Accredited Businesses have quite a bit of common sense and they did not follow through with the scam because they knew those 2 business associates travel with a good support network who help them out if the story was actually true. However, other businesses need to be on the lookout for suspicious e-mails from supposed employees or business partners because wiring money away is just about as effective as lighting it on fire...in less than a minute, you'll never see it again.