Warning - New Scam

[HFE Signs]

Everyone, I've had a meeting with my bank manager, and one of the thinks that came up in conversation was a new scam that they are seeing more of recently. Sorry if you already know about it but I thought its worth sharing.

Basically a company gets their email account hacked, the hackers are looking out for invoices being emailed out, the scammers replicate the invoice with a different account and sort code for payment, and is some cases change the phone number too. They then send it on (from the correct domain & contact) along with another email explaining they have changed bank details. The recipient received it, as it all looks correct and pay into the new account. It isn’t until the company call to chase payment that it gets discovered.. Apparently some companies have been caught for tens of thousands and can’t get the money back as its a BACS transaction.

If anyone tells you they’ve changed bank details, phone them on a phone number you know is them.

 

[Turnkey Businesses]

i seen that on tv the other night where a woman buying a property transfered the money to scammers instead of her solicitor after they used that trick, nearly £50k too! its worrying stuff.

 

[MyAccountantOnline]

Everyone, I've had a meeting with my bank manager, and one of the thinks that came up in conversation was a new scam that they are seeing more of recently. Sorry if you already know about it but I thought its worth sharing.

Basically a company gets their email account hacked, the hackers are looking out for invoices being emailed out, the scammers replicate the invoice with a different account and sort code for payment, and is some cases change the phone number too. They then send it on (from the correct domain & contact) along with another email explaining they have changed bank details. The recipient received it, as it all looks correct and pay into the new account. It isn’t until the company call to chase payment that it gets discovered.. Apparently some companies have been caught for tens of thousands and can’t get the money back as its a BACS transaction.

If anyone tells you they’ve changed bank details, phone them on a phone number you know is them.

Thanks for sharing that one HFE Signs

 

[deniser]

That's quite worrying. Luckily our invoices are all sent by post although I guess the same could be done with the post too with the help of rogue postie.

 

[Mark Thomas Steward]

Fake invoice scams are everywhere at the moment. No supplier will mind you calling them to check their bank details, but don't use their phone number on the invoice in question!
Another scam going on is scammers faking emails from business owners to their staff asking them to make an urgent bank transfer for them. If someone else has access to your bank account either agree you will never request a transfer by email or set up a password process.

 

[HarveyIT]

I don't know if it's the same thing or not (because I haven't bothered to investigate further), but I personally get very regular emails with 'invoices' attached, that I know is probably 'just another email account hacked'.
I once got one a while ago, and actually contacted the company in question, but they already knew about it.

 

[Jose Jimenez]

Hi, I hope its OK to resurrect this thread as Im looking to get some advice on how to prevent this going forward.

As described above it appears that my client's email has been hacked/compromised and they look for invoices. When they find one they send an email from a fake email address (but very similar to the one used by client) asking for payment to a different account. Luckily it was spotted but I'm just trying to find out how to ensure this doesn't happen again. So far the client has changed their password for their online Yahoo account. Is this enough or should other measures be taken? Is there likely to be spyware/malware on their computer?

This scam also happened to a family member a month ago as they were billed for some building work but like above it was from a fake account. Unfortunately the money was transferred so this seems to be quite common.