(New York) Today Mark Johnson, Chairman of Victims Of Barter Fraud with officials of the North American Barter Association held a joint press conference to warn small business owners nation-wide not to divulge credit, checking account, or other banking information to barter exchanges offering to assist them with their tax returns or for any other alleged reason. ?You must guard this information zealously or be prepared to be victimized by a sophisticated scam? he remarked.
Johnson further explained ?So far over 200 small business owners have fallen for this generous offer and then within two weeks, find moneys missing from the accounts and bogus charges on their company credit cards from purchases as far away as 1,000 miles?. The losses are averaging $23,187 which for a small business can be devastating. Merchants report being called with the ?introductory offer? to join a company named ?MBE? purported to be a barter exchange. If they supposedly sign up with this exchange they will receive free assistance with their tax returns and ?free tax consultants that will save you over $1,000 as well as advance them their tax refunds?. Johnson reports that the promises are enough to get merchants to disclose their financial information. Business owners with caller ID report that the calls come in from area codes 973, 570, 212, 717, and 908 with only 1-800 numbers given as call back numbers. Thus far, Johnson and NABA tabulate the losses at just over $3.2 million
Nathan Forbes of the North American Barter Association suspects the culprits are linked to a group operating between Morristown, NJ, Mt. Pocono, Pa, and Manhattan where mail drops at executive suite office have been utilized for other fraudulent barter transactions during the last 6 months. ?We suspect it is the same group since they have utilized hackers in the past to delete news reports and links exposing their scams from the Internet. In the last three months alone, 29 such links magically disappeared less than a few days of being posted?. Said Forbes. ?The group uses elaborate web sites that disappear within weeks (like betterbusinesswithbarter.com) as well as glossy blue, white, and orange brochures extolling the many benefits of barter to lure their victims into a false sense of confidence? added NABA?s chief investigator, David Stryzinski.
NABA investigators are also now looking into claims of three established barter exchanges who claim that hackers also infiltrated their on-line database of clients who just in the last few days, also started receiving the same ?tax return offers?. In the barter exchange industry, a barter exchange?s database is sacred and most prized. Forbes warned barter exchange operators to beef up their IT security with enhanced encryption and firewall protection. Both Johnson and Forbes confirmed that they reported their findings to both state and federal authorities and requested their assistance with a criminal investigation.
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