Blogs

Don’t let fraud prevention fall by the wayside. To survive in a world full of scammers and thieves, small businesses must take cybersecurity and check fraud seriously. Never trust a suspicious check, and don’t hesitate to request an alternative payment. Utilizing check payments to pay your vendors may also be putting your business at risk. Learn more about check fraud and how to protect your business. Bank checks are still the most popular method for making business-to-business payments. But unfortunately, check fraud has significantly increased over the last several years. According to the...

Technology can do wonders for your business, but it can also leave you open to many types of social engineering attacks if you don’t take the necessary precautions. Is your business prepared to recognize and fend off these attacks? Let’s unpack some common social engineering scams and how to prevent yourself from becoming another statistic. You hear the horror stories all the time—people falling for different types of social engineering attacks and losing everything to some scammer. You’re confident it could never happen to you. But is your business prepared to recognize and fend off these...

Your HTLF fraud partners, Director John Fick, and Fraud Risk Manager Tracy Swaim, along with their teams, work daily to help prevent and mitigate fraud loss for our clients. Now more than ever, small businesses are at an increased risk of fraud. Due to Covid-19, inflation, and rising interest rates, some small businesses are forced to work on a skeleton crew, meaning fewer eyes looking for potential scams. Falling victim to fraud can cost your business precious resources including time and money. Learn more in our latest article about what you can do to help protect yourself and your business...

Business email compromise scams—also known as BEC scams—can do untold damage to your company and reputation. Recognizing compromised emails is the difference between safe guarding your business or becoming a victim. Learn more about BEC scams and how you can protect your business and your bottom line. Business email compromise scams—also known as BEC scams—can do untold damage to your company and reputation. According to the FBI, victims of BEC scams lost $2.4 billion in 2021, exceeding losses from ransomware attacks nearly fifty-fold! BEC scams account for a third of cybercrime losses, and...

When operating a successful business, understanding what impacts cash flow within your organization is key. Below are several areas to help monitor your cash flow, and provide guidance on how to fix issues over time. By considering the following, you will be able to respond to changes in a timely manner and properly plan for future expenses. Working Capital McKinsey & Company shares 1 that having some basics in place around working capital can release an unexpected amount of cash. “That’s everything from the discipline around how you pay your suppliers’ invoices on time—not too early, not too...