News and Updates

Not long ago, we received an email purportedly from a financial company regarding investment opportunities and inviting us to find out more by contacting the office or clicking on a link.  Immediately, our senses were heightened for a possible scam for two reasons:

1. The subject was for financial services
2. The sending email was from gmail

Why would a legitimate business be relying on gmail (or aol, ymail, or any other consumer email service)?  Obtaining and setting up a company email domain is simple and inexpensive – affordably within reach of every single company in existence.  We couldn’t come up with a serious reason why a legitimate business would be using a consumer email address.

And in particular, since it was for financial services – a known area of frauds and scams – we figured a legitimate company would be going out of their way to assure the recipients that the investment opportunity was real.

But not in this case.  A promotion for financial services and investments came in on a gmail account.  We concluded it was a scam, and reported the sender to the SEC.  As it turned out, this was a legitimate company.  Too bad; they had to answer some questions and they did promise not to send unsolicited emails again.

There is a larger lesson here.  Think how your business is perceived when you send an email on gmail.  What is fine for your teenager is not fine for the business that represents your livelihood.  Talk to us about the simple and affordable steps you can take to get a company email address.