The confidence trickster shares common ground with the identity thief. It is simple for a confidence trickster, or anyone for that matter, to say that he works for a particular company and to charge whatever expenses were incurred to the company's account. A person can appear to be credible and know the correct procedures.
When business is rushed, the transaction can be made without a thought or indication of suspicion. Most businesses are solely interested in building business and are not likely to turn customers away, especially if they appear to be credible.
Chances of the commercial identity thief being believed are likely if he has inside information or knowledge such as the order number or the order form in the right format, a business card or an official looking company document, and the transaction does not appear to be suspicious. Customer service people are not very likely to reject what appears to be a credible or legitimate business transaction.
We have become too confident in thinking that a confidence trickster could get a way with a transaction like the infamous sale of the Brooklyn Bridge. These types of things did not fade with the age old trick. Today we are just as gullible and greed is just as evident. This is noted in the famous Nigerian scam wherein victims are requested to send advance money transfers. These types of efforts are currently made on a huge scale.
A recent report by the BBC indicated that this Nigerian scam costs Britain 150 million pounds every year. This is just one country and a single estimation of costs. Routine verification and documentation procedures are the best defense against commercial identity theft . In order to have a second opinion and a sort of cooling off period, a supervisor should be in charge of approving transactions that could possibly involve identity theft. Some investigative procedures are usually warranted before a transaction for credit authorization is completed. Set procedures for verifying unusual delivery instructions are utilized to ensure that identity theft becomes even more difficult for thieves to carry out.
Several companies have started refusing to issue payment for invoices that do not match company order numbers. Due to past experiences, more extreme transaction approval procedures are evident to assess risks and flag potential commercial identity theft problems.
This is all good and secure ethics in business but the simplest defense is simply good old customer service. Knowing a customer well will allow a company to become familiar with the usual team associated with them or their business and relieve any stress of business not being carried out in the usual way.
Balancing between growing sales and preventing fraud is a constant challenge for businesses. Frequent use of information systems for quickly accessing and communicating data has made it possible to detect and prevent commercial identity theft early.