Fraud risk while business is disrupted
Sadly all businesses face fraud risk every day. At the moment businesses are disrupted due to Covid-19. Many staff are working from home and are not able to communicate quite as easily as they can in the office together. This could increase the risk of businesses falling for scams.
CEO impersonation
(This isn’t just limited to CEOs!)
I have received emails from Chief Executives, Finance Directors and other senior staff asking me to contact them to make an urgent payment. This is a common type of fraud. Fraudsters might have hacked into the CEO’s email account, or used an email address that is very similar to the real one. Fraudsters can make their emails seem more realistic by finding information about your organisation online, via Linkedin or other sources.
Perhaps the email you get is genuine, this is an unusual time and businesses are having to react quickly to minimise disruption. But before you rush to make the payment take time to check the email address that it has come from and contact the sender. Ideally call the sender of the email and definitely don’t just reply to the email you received as it may be a fake email address.
Supplier bank detail fraud
This can happen when a ‘supplier’ contacts you to tell you that they have changed bank details and that the next payment should be made to their new bank details.
Of course suppliers do genuinely change their bank details from time to time, but sadly fraudsters also pretend to be suppliers to divert funds to their own bank accounts instead. The fraudsters may use a fake email address as in CEO impersonation fraud or may send a letter. It is easy for them to find the logo from your suppliers online and create fake headed paper so even though the letter might look genuine, it doesn’t mean that it is genuine.
If you receive contact from a supplier telling you that they have changed bank details you should contact your supplier to verify the details you have been sent. Always contact them using contact details that you already have, not using the details on the letter that you have received as if the fraudster has any sense, those contact details will divert to the fraudster too.
Sadly fraudsters will be trying to take advantage of the confusion and disruption caused by sudden changes to working practices in the recent and coming weeks so please stay vigilant!