IBPO Against Scammers: Identifying Legitimate Financial Company

At IBPO, we pride ourselves as a legitimate source of financial services, guide, and partner. We believe it is our responsibility to educate the public about how they can spot shady and dishonest “financial advisors,” sometimes even downright scams.

Verifying Financial Companies

There are many methods to verify a legitimate financial company, most of them simple yet efficient.

For starters, any company that offers to submit fraudulent or falsified documents on behalf of you should be avoided at all costs! Even if you hadn’t falsified it yourself, you will get in trouble for it!

How else can you tell if a company is out there to help you, or harm you?

Guide to Identify Legitimate Financial Company

First Step: Go Online

Browsing for Online Information Can Be Very helpful

Almost all businesses will have an online presence, even illegitimate ones, so how do you go about deciding which one is the real deal?

Easy, go to their website, look for mentions of official partnerships with reputable banks, financial institutions, or brands. Without the scrutiny of a reputable partner, a company might be tempted to delve into unethical practices to make money.

Big international banks will not engage, much less partner up with criminal organisations posing as businesses!

Second Step: Are They Trusted by Credit Bureau Agencies?

We are an Official Partner of CTOS!

Most financial services would require a financial health check on clients for pre-qualification. For IBPO’s services, we utilise the credit reports provided by our official verified partners CTOS and Experian to do so.

When going through this, make sure the company in question has been verified by credit bureau agencies instead of just being subscribers, which can be any company.

Third Step: What Do They Communicate With? 

Identify Your Caller

Does the company you’re engaging with call you via a personal mobile phone or an unknown number? This might sound like a minute detail, but believe or not it could be a red flag.

A professional and legitimate financial company would always be communicating through an official medium such as emails from official email domains (look for domains directly linked to the company’s website), published office/phone numbers and face-to-face meet ups at registered office locations.

Do take note of this the next time a financial company is calling you, as you could be falling into the trap of scammers!

Fourth Step: Consent

Manage Your Consents!

Please know that reports and documents about your financial status are confidential, attempts to retrieve them would require your consent.

A financial company that tries to pull any reports of you behind your back is a big no-no. This is an unethical and unlawful infringement of your personal information, something a legitimate financial company would never do.

Not only that, you should always be aware of who you give your consent to as well. Make sure the company is legitimate and trustable before giving away your most valuable asset; personal information and data.

Fifth Step: Are the Claimed Credentials True?

So, the firm seems legit because they claim to be an outsourced agency for a bank, that means they can’t be a scam right? Not exactly, anybody can claim things, but you can still check if the bank backs those claims up.

If you’re still not completely sure about an agency’s claims to supposed partnerships with a bank, you can always contact the bank (list of licensed financial institutions and contact info) to verify this claim.

Should they confirm it, you’re good to go. Should they refute it, well, it’s most likely a scam.

Sixth Step: The Web is Your Friend

“Verified” Ticks are Your Friend

How much online presence does this company have? How much information is available out there? Do they have social media accounts?

A transparent company should have most of their information available on the internet.

Be Informed

Much like purchasing a new product or any other previously unknown services, one should gather as much information as possible before forking out their money.

Do your due diligence!