How Small Business Fax Machines Works

A fax machine can be considered as a mix of a telephone and a mailing system. You can use the phone line attached to it in communicating with partners, clients and suppliers. The actual fax, on the other hand, is used in sending and receiving paper-based documents and other printed items like photographs. It has a feed that scans the document, encrypts it for sending and releases via printout the copy to your recipient.

But while the fax machine seems to be just a simple type of office equipment, it can also attract as much as your regular phone and email does. Indeed, what looks like a machine that require manipulation from you before receiving a document can play host to fraudulent transactions.

Here is how it works. Your office fax machine is programmed to automatically receive documents from external senders. At any given time, you can receive a document that resembles a poster or flyer indicating something of interest. It can be an invitation for you to join competitions and get a big chance of winning. Also, it can offer you several great-looking deals like in restaurants and spas. Or, it can be a document that looks like a legitimate notification from your regular suppliers.

There is nothing suspicious at all about these documents except of one grave catch: you are required to fax back to the sender your reply. For example, if you are interested to avail of the service or product, then you would reply with your order. But you would be asked to fax back to premium rate number that usually has a series of numbers that start with 1-9-0.

The rip-off happens when the premium rate number to which you would fax back would charge you with a larger cost, sometimes even double the usual rate of your other faxes. This may not sound alarming except that the charge is at a per minute basis. Unfortunately, your fax takes more than a couple of minutes to be sent. Before you know it, you are facing a billing that is way larger than what could have been had you not replied to that fax.

Possibly every small business enterprise make use of the fax machine as one of their means of communication. In fact, even if you are running a small business in the comfort of your home you can always benefit from having a handy fax machine. But always be vigilant in determining which faxes are important and which are not to avoid being victimized by.