Hi, I’m Jennifer Shaheen, President and Founder of Technology Therapy® Group. As a business owner, there are some things that we don’t love to have to deal with. Sometimes these things are out of our control. Let’s talk about one of these issues today: spam.

Here’s the thing, you can put a spam blocker on your website to try to keep your online forms protected from bots. But the thing is that you will also get spam from actual people who are trying to scam you.

So unfortunately, a spam blocker on your website won’t do much to stop scammers. These are real humans who are trying to swindle you.  I’ve seen this happen, it’s happened to me a few times, and unfortunately, like you, I have to check out these leads.

I work with start-up businesses and many often start with a free Gmail address. A Gmail address does not automatically disqualify someone from being a legitimate lead. One of the ways I figure out whether they’re a real person who wants our services is to ask for a phone call or an online meeting.

One thing you’ll find with those scammers that come through your online forms or emails: they never ever want to talk to you directly.  Most “real potential customers” are excited to speak with me on the phone or over a web meeting.  So, if you get a lead through your website, and it seems legitimate, go ahead and reply to it and always invite them to speak with you or a member of your team. It’s a great way to confirm they are serious and it illustrates up front your personal attention to their business. Once you see that they don’t want to get on the phone with you or they find every excuse to avoid talking to you, I recommend you very politely say, I don’t think we’re going to be the right fit for you.

Remember this is not technically spam, but an actual person trying to scam you and no website blocker is going to protect you from these miscreants.