How to spot possible scammers and fraudsters:

• They only deal in cash and ask you for large deposits upfront.
  
• Fraudsters may ask you for instant EFTs for the whole quote or a very large portion of it.
• You cannot find any addresses as to where they operate from.
• Their businesses do not have a strong online presence and it is difficult to find any history about them.
• Be weary of ridiculously low quotes.
  
• There is nowhere that you can check their ratings such as Google or Facebook.
  
• Contacting them is difficult or impossible.
• Scammers may also pose as representatives of ligitimate companies. If you feel uneasy or uncomfortable, then contact the removal company directly for clarity.
• Scam artists operate on the principle of gaining your confidence and will promise the world to gain you over.
• Never pay any money over if you are not completely confident of the persons you are dealing with.

Stay safe online:

Email fraud and scams are on the rise.

Ensure that your email server passwords are not prone to dictionary attacks. Passwords such as “password”, “birthday” or even “1234” are easy to guess and could cause problems.

Make sure that your email provider/server is using encryption for connection and sending of mail.

Tricksters will often gain access to your mailboxes/accounts and then look for invoices payable. They will then modify the banking and contact details, on these invoices, and re-send you the invoice from a fake or similar company email address.

Often, the email states that there was a problem when calculating your quote and that the new “revised” quote contains a much cheaper rate.

Unsuspecting clients will then make a deposit into the “new account” thinking that they are paying the removals company.

Should you suspect any foul-play, contact the removal company, from their web-site details, and verify all banking details.