Tame the Week: October 12, 2026

Two scam warnings and one useful ChatGPT addition came out this week, and each one has something you can do before Friday.

1. Scam emails asking you to change bank details now read perfectly

An Australian bank, ANZ, warned businesses about sophisticated scams ahead of Black Friday, and an expert in the same report said AI is helping criminals write flawless emails, fake invoices that match a supplier's branding, and even cloned-voice follow-up calls. A UNSW professor said the old advice to look for spelling mistakes no longer works, and put it this way: "AI has turned scamming from a craft into a factory." The warning is Australian. A real-looking supplier asks you to update their banking details.

What it means for you: This week, set one rule and tell whoever pays your bills. Any change to payment details gets confirmed by phone, using a number you already had on file, never one from the email or invoice. Do the same if the "owner" or a supplier calls asking for a rush payment. Write the rule on a sticky note next to the computer where invoices get paid.

Source: SBS News

2. Fake company websites are now cheap to build

A Bloomberg report, summarized by PYMNTS, says phishing kits for fake sites that mimic companies, banks and payment gateways are being sold. Security firm ZeroFox found phishing pages on the free tiers of nine developer platforms and AI app builders rose more than fourfold to 10,600 over two years.

What it means for you: Someone could build a page that looks like yours and send customers to it. Spend ten minutes this week searching Google for your business name plus words like "pay," "invoice" and "login," and look past the first page of results. If you find a copy, report it to the platform hosting it. Then add a line to your invoices and texts saying where you send bills from and that you never ask for card numbers by text message.

Source: PYMNTS

3. ChatGPT can now turn a recorded call into a follow-up email

I could not open OpenAI's own page, so this comes from a small business roundup by Lilach Bullock. It says that on October 6 OpenAI added audio uploads for paid subscriptions and workspaces. You can ask for a transcript, a recap or answers about the recording. Free accounts don't have it, and availability depends on your settings, region, app version and model.

What it means for you: If you pay for ChatGPT and quote jobs by phone, try it on one recording you are allowed to use, in MP3 or M4A format. Ask it to draft a follow-up email without sending it, list decisions and next steps separately, and mark unclear names, amounts and dates as CHECK. Then listen back to the parts about price, deadlines and scope yourself. The roundup warns that speaker identification isn't always reliable, so confirm who agreed to what before you hit send.

Source: Lilach Bullock, AI news this week for small business

I'm Jeff Goddard, and I build working AI tools for small businesses. This note is researched and fact-checked every week by an AI system I built. If you'd like something like that working in your business, let's talk: https://tamebuild.ai