Nearly two-thirds of businesses use social media, and for many smaller firms it’s where customers discover, get to know, and buy from them. This means that for a small or medium-sized business, a social media account is often its shopfront, sales channel, and customer service desk all at once. It pays off. TikTok helped UK small and medium-sized businesses generate an estimated £3. 4bn in additional output in 2025. And while a digital-first world can be great for business, scammers and cybercriminals are evolving their tactics to match. In the UK alone, nearly half of small businesses have reported being targeted by a cyber breach or attack. At TikTok, more than 99% of the frauds and scams content we remove is taken down before anyone reports it. But there are plenty of steps businesses should take, and the good news is that it doesn’t require a dedicated tech team or a big budget. 1. Treat unexpected offers as unverified
The most effective scams don’t look like scams. They look like opportunities: an investor who gets in touch out of the blue, a brand that slides into your DMs with a collaboration but needs an upfront fee to "secure the deal", a service promising to double your followers by Friday. They work because they speak to what every founder wants most: funding and growth. So treat every unexpected offer as unverified until you’ve checked it yourself, through the organisation’s official website or a contact you already trust, never the link or number in the message. And ignore anyone selling likes, followers or verification. At best, you’ll get hollow numbers. At worst, you’ll hand over the keys to your account. 2. Lock down your logins
Your login is the front door to the business you’ve built. Use a unique password of at least 12 characters for every account your business uses, so one leaked password can’t unlock the rest. Turn on 2-Step Verification, so anyone who steals your password still can’t get in without a second check. Where your devices support them, set up passkeys. They replace passwords with something tied to your device, like a fingerprint or face scan, which makes them far harder to steal…