(New York) David Stryzinski of the North American Barter Association today issued a nation-wide fraud alert to the small business community to be extremely wary of purported barter exchanges offering either "tax assistance", "advance tax refunds", or "free tax return services" if you sit down with one of their sales reps to supposedly "learn about barter benefits".
The innocuos promotion has been luring hundreds of merchants into disclosing their companys credit card, banking, and checking account information, only to discover within a month that they have unauthorized credit card charges and debits from their account. Some victims report losses in excess of $20,000, but most are in the $5,000 to $10,000 range.
We are opening up an official investigation and have assigned two "undercover merchants" to do the appropriate leg work to catch the clever cons.
"NABA has notified the authorities as well as the FTC but until charges are actually laid, we cannot name the suspects" FOr now, NABA just cautions and warns consumers to use their caller ID and watch out for sales calls coming in from area codes 973, 908, 571, 212, 717 with only 800 numbers given as call back numbers. The perpetrators are also using mail drops at executive suite offices and P.O. Boxes. Those reported so far include:
55 Madison Avenue, Morristown, NJ P.O. Box 692, Union NJ 540 North Avenue, Union, NJ 405 Park Avenue, NY 4 Fork Street, Mt. Pocono P.O. Box 4585, Scranton, PA
If you are a small business owner solicited by someone who falls into the above categories, you are urged to ask for identification and call NABAs Fraud Hotline at: 1-800-917-2588 Merchants who want to me notified by e-mail of any and all barter exchange scams should sign up by email at NABA@email.com The service is free and can save your company thousands of dollars.
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