Businesses and their employees are common targets for scammers. A few deceptive emails and a fake link are all it can take to trick unaware employees into sending payments, handing over password information, or letting unauthorized users in, and the business pays the price.
According to the FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), business email compromise caused more than $3 billion in reported losses in 2025, and tech and customer support scams, which often pose as trusted support teams, added another $2.1 billion. Many of these scams succeed without any malware, which is why anti-scam protection has become a core part of cybersecurity for IT teams.
This guide covers what anti-scam protection for business includes, which scams target employees most, why antivirus alone isn’t enough, and the controls IT teams can put in place to stop scams.
What is anti-scam protection for business?
Anti-scam protection for business combines verification processes, employee awareness, and endpoint security tools designed to help prevent employees from falling for scams. These scams can take many forms, but typically involve sending money, sharing credentials, or otherwise giving attackers access to company devices.
Anti-scam protection consists of three key layers:
Process: How payments and account changes are made and verified.
People: How employees are trained to recognize and report scams.
Technology: The tools the company uses to block scam sites, phishing pages, and unauthorized access.
These three layers work together, covering gaps the others leave to provide more holistic security across an organization.
The scams most likely to target your employees
Most scams that reach employees follow a handful of patterns. Each one below covers the warning signs employees should know and the controls IT can put in place to stop it.
1. Business email compromise and executive impersonation
Have you ever received an email that seemed to be from a boss or coworker making an odd request for money? A common scam involves compromising or spoofing an executive or colleague’s email, then asking the target to send money, change direct deposits, or buy gift cards. According to the IC3 report, these scams accounted for more than $3 billion in losses across 24,768 complaints in 2025.
Fortunately, there are some warning signs you can look out for. If the email seems to add a sense of urgency (such as “my wallet was stolen overseas, and I need you to wire me money” or “we need to send this payment immediately”), requests secrecy, or asks you to bypass the normal approval process, that should set off red flags. Similarly, if the email address doesn’t quite match, or the grammar is off, that could also signal a spoofed or compromised account.
For IT and finance teams, the strongest control is process. Require out-of-band verification, such as a callback to a known number, and a second approver for any payment, payroll, or banking change, no matter who appears to be asking.
2. Phishing and fake login pages
Phishing was the most reported crime type in the IC3’s 2025 report, with 191,561 complaints. In a typical attack, an email or message leads to a fake login page or otherwise requests employee credentials. If an employee falls for the trick and enters their login information, the attacker can steal that information and use it to log in to the stolen account.
To avoid phishing, employees should stay cautious when opening emails and clicking links. Check that links lead where they say (watch for small spelling changes too, like an uppercase I instead of a lowercase L), and watch out for unexpected sign-in prompts. If a message tries to create a sense of urgency (“log in within the next 24 hours or your account will be deleted”), that’s another warning sign.
On the IT side, endpoint protection that blocks known phishing sites gives you a backstop for the moment someone clicks anyway, and MFA keeps a stolen password from being enough on its own. When employees are unsure about a link, they should sign in through a trusted URL instead.
3. Tech support and help desk impersonation
A classic version is the unexpected call from “Windows tech support” claiming to have detected a virus on a computer. Fake tech support is another common scam, responsible for over $2 billion in reported losses across individual victims and businesses in 2025.
The scam begins with a call, email, or other notification claiming to be from a company’s IT team. They claim they need to perform troubleshooting, debugging, or other maintenance on the victim’s device and need remote access to address the issue.
These scams often use legitimate, commercial remote access software to connect to the victim’s device. From there, they use that access to steal data, install malware, or access other valuable files. Because the remote access tool itself is legitimate software, signature-based antivirus typically won’t flag it.
In this case, the warning sign is the request itself. Remote access scam prevention requires caution and skepticism, especially when you receive unexpected contact from a supposed help desk.
Employees should watch for unsolicited contact from a support agent, pressure to act immediately, and requests to install software or read out a code. For IT teams, the fix has two parts: publish one official support channel so employees know how real IT will reach them, and block installs of unapproved remote access tools on company devices.
4. Fake invoices and vendor payment fraud
When a company receives an invoice for a payment, they need to check and confirm they received the services they’re paying for and that it’s going to the right source. Fake invoices and vendor payment fraud aim to trick businesses into paying them or redirecting legitimate payments.
In these scams, the scammer typically sends an invoice for goods and services that were never ordered, hoping the business will pay without checking to confirm the details. In some cases, they pose as a real supplier and ask the business to update its bank details so legitimate payments get sent to them instead of the actual vendor.
In either case, the scammer gets paid while businesses and vendors suffer.
Employees can spot these scams by watching for invoices for services no one remembers ordering, changed bank details, and sender domains that are slightly off from the real vendor. On the process side, require any change to vendor bank details to be confirmed through contact information already on file, never through details supplied in the request.
5. AI-assisted impersonation and voice cloning
Artificial intelligence (AI) has given scammers new tools to trick victims. According to the FBI’s IC3 report, complaints tagged as AI-related accounted for nearly $900 million in losses in 2025, the first year the IC3 tracked this descriptor.
Scammers can use AI to quickly create convincing phishing emails, making phishing attempts more effective. Similarly, they can use AI to clone the voice of a company executive or colleague and call a victim to request money or credentials. A familiar voice is no longer reliable proof of identity, and generative AI can make these calls responsive and convincing in real time.
Warning signs still exist. A voice or video call that comes from outside normal channels to request money or access is an important red flag, especially when the caller pushes for urgency.
Train employees to hang up and call the person back through a known number, and make that callback a required step in your payment and access-change policies.
Where standard antivirus falls short on scams
Antivirus is a core part of endpoint security, but many scams are designed to get past it.
Signature-based antivirus focuses on malicious files and code. Many scams involve no malware at all. They trick employees into sending a wire transfer, handing over credentials, or installing a legitimate remote access tool for a scammer.
In these cases, the attack runs through the employee’s own actions. Anti-scam protection needs to work at the moment employees are targeted, such as when they land on a phishing page or scam site, or when someone asks them to install remote access software.
This isn’t to say that antivirus is outdated. Antivirus software remains necessary to defend against malware and other cyber threats, but it should be paired with scam-specific endpoint protection and user training for more holistic protection.
How to protect your business from scams in 7 steps
These seven steps combine process, people, and technology so IT teams can stop scams before they cost the business money:
Verify every payment and account change through a second channel: Many scams rely on victims taking the scammer at their word, so verification closes the most common gap. Require a callback to a known phone number (not the one supplied in the request) and a second approver before changing bank details, adding new payees, or updating payroll information.
Train employees on current scam tactics: Short, recurring sessions with real examples work best, including help desk impersonation and AI voice cloning. Make reporting a suspicious message quick and blame-free, so employees speak up when they spot something.
Publish one official IT support channel: You can defend against IT scams by telling employees exactly how IT will contact them and making it clear that IT will never cold-call to ask them to install software. Any other request should be treated as a scam and reported.
Control which remote access tools can run on company devices: Standardize on one approved remote access tool and make sure employees know which one your IT team uses. Then block or flag installs of any other remote access software on company devices.
Add endpoint protection that blocks scam and phishing sites: Endpoint protection is a powerful tool to defend against malicious links and websites. Look for protection that works across your managed devices and blocks scam and phishing sites before employees interact with them.
Enforce multi-factor authentication on critical accounts: If an employee’s credentials are stolen, extra authentication can save the day. Use multi-factor authentication (MFA) when logging into accounts like email, banking, payroll, and so on, so any stolen passwords won’t be enough to grant unauthorized access.
Centralize alerts and define your response plan: Centralized controls and a clear plan help IT teams respond to threats quickly and effectively. Make sure security alerts reach IT in one place, and if a device is infected, quickly isolate it and reset credentials. If money is moved, be sure to contact your bank and report all incidents to the FBI and the FTC.
What to look for in anti-scam software for business
Scam protection for business requires a strong combination of employee training and anti-scam software. Anti-scam software can help identify and block potential scams, but you’ll want to make sure it has the right features.
Be sure to look for:
Real-time malware protection that automatically scans files as they are opened or downloaded and quarantines detected threats.
Scam and phishing site blocking to block known malicious sites and catch new ones.
AI-assisted scam detection that helps identify new and emerging scams, even if rule-based filters don’t recognize them.
Unauthorized remote access tool blocking to detect and block attempts to install unapproved remote access software.
Centralized deployment and policy controls so IT can install and enforce protection across all endpoints, even if they’re not physically present.
Immediate alerts to notify IT when a threat is blocked or a takeover attempt is detected.
Compatibility with existing security tools so it can run alongside your existing antivirus or EDR software without conflicts.
Clear privacy boundaries that show administrators protection status and security events without exposing employees' personal files.
How Splashtop Shield for Business helps IT teams reduce scam risk
While there are many scams and threats out there trying to steal your accounts and data, there are tools to defend against malware and scammers alike. Splashtop Shield for Business combines antivirus and anti-scam protection, helping protect your employees from being tricked while protecting your devices from viruses.
Splashtop Shield for Business is available as an add-on to Splashtop business products with unattended access, combining modern antivirus with AI-assisted scam and phishing protection to help keep endpoints secure. With Splashtop Shield for Business, you can:
1. Block scam and phishing sites with AI-assisted detection
Splashtop Shield for Business blocks unsafe and known phishing sites, and its AI-assisted scam detection helps catch new and emerging scams that aren’t on a known list yet. Real-time anti-malware and on-access scanning stop malicious files and unsafe applications before they run.
2. Block unauthorized remote access tool installs
Remote access is a fantastic tool for enabling remote collaboration, support, and work. However, scammers can abuse it by tricking victims into granting access. As such, Splashtop Shield for Business detects and blocks attempts to install unauthorized remote access tools, including the ones scammers use to impersonate a help desk. Admins can add approved remote access tools to an allow list, so legitimate support sessions keep working. If Splashtop Shield detects a takeover attempt, it alerts IT immediately so they can intervene.
3. Deploy and report through the Splashtop console
Managing security shouldn’t cause unnecessary headaches for users or IT teams. IT teams can install Splashtop Shield for Business automatically through Endpoint Policies or run an on-demand silent install that doesn’t interrupt users. Quick and full scans can be started from the Splashtop console, and threat alerts appear there under Security > Threats, with a direct link to the Shield Console for investigation.
Additionally, Splashtop Shield can automatically quarantine most threats, thus improving responsiveness without adding another burden to your IT department.
4. Run anti-scam protection alongside your existing security tools
Splashtop Shield for Business can run alongside other security tools, such as CrowdStrike or Bitdefender, without conflict. Admins see protection status and security events for each endpoint, while employees’ personal files and browsing history stay private.
Add anti-scam protection to the endpoints you manage
Malware targets devices, and scams target people. Good anti-scam protection combines verification, training, and endpoint controls, so you can catch scam sites and stop unauthorized remote access before they cost your business money.
Splashtop Shield for Business adds that endpoint layer, combining real-time antivirus, AI-assisted scam and phishing protection, and blocking of unauthorized remote access tools to help IT teams spot and stop scams across Windows and macOS endpoints.
If your business already uses a Splashtop business product with unattended access, you can add Splashtop Shield for Business to your subscription.
Want to learn more about Splashtop Shield for Business? Check it out today.
