Identity theft crimes are not limited to individuals; businesses can also become victims. Recently, a Tucson business- Happy Tails Travels- discovered this firsthand when they became a victim of business identity theft.

Happy Tails, which specializes in “personalized pet transportation services” for adopted pets, began getting phone calls in February from consumers who claimed they had wired money to Happy Tails with the promise of having a pet delivered to them. Happy Tails learned through these phone calls that scammers had copied their Web site, and were soliciting business from prospective customers, using the business’ name.

The callers told the business that the scammers posing as Happy Tails requested that their victims wire the money to them- making it almost impossible for law enforcement to track where the money went.

“The most frustrating part of this for us is this foreign based ‘company’ pops up over and over with different fake company names that they insert into our site,” said Happy Tails co-owner, Bridget Monrad. “This negatively affects our time and resources and hurts good hearted people who think they are adopting a pet.”

Copycats not only design similar-looking websites, but will create fraudulent advertisements and solicitations featuring real business names, logos and contact information to cheat consumers under false guises and potentially ruin other businesses’ reputations.

“Impostors hijack and exploit information from legitimate organizations to swindle unsuspecting consumers,” said Kim States, BBB President. “It’s becoming a huge problem, and ensnaring more and more businesses.”

Business victims usually detect stolen identities when confronted by customers regarding false solicitations, fake websites, phishing emails, fraudulent charges or check cashing schemes. (more…)