GREENSBORO, N.C. — A snapshot of small businesses in North Carolina will show you that 99.6% of businesses in NC are small businesses with 499 people or less. Small businesses make up a little less than half of all people employed in NC, about 44.4%. So if a scammer is targeting small businesses, we need to pay attention.
A new report from the Identity Theft Resource Center shows that 73% of small businesses suffered a cyber incident in the past year.
"The number of small businesses being attacked has grown tremendously over the last 3 years,” said James Lee, COO, of Identity Theft Resource Center.
One of those businesses is Pearle's Paintings. The artist uses Facebook to promote her creations. Her situation started with a Facebook notification.
"And if I didn't provide my information they would delete my account immediately,” said Pearle Northrup.
She clicked on the link, entered in her login info and the scammer took over her business and Facebook pages, making charges on her business account. 43% of small businesses said they lost revenue in an attack.
"The main thing any small business needs to do is make sure you have an outside advisor helping you with your cyber security. It's just too complex to go on your own,” said Lee.
The Identity Theft Resource Center is a non-profit that can help small businesses. But this kind of hack is happening to regular folks too. It all starts with a Facebook notification or message about your page being disabled. Don't fall for it and don't click the link.