Gardai are warning businesses not to fall for an invoice redirect scam as they revealed two companies lost over €650,000 to fraudsters.
One company was defrauded of over €200,000 while another lost almost $500,000 (€453,514).
Crafty scammers are sending emails to businesses or individuals pretending to be one of their legitimate suppliers.
They ask the business to change the existing bank account details that the business has for the supplier, to bank accounts controlled by the criminals.
They are also known to send letters or make phone calls.
When a payment is requested by the legitimate supplier for services rendered or goods supplied, the victim acts on the new banking instructions and sends the payment to the criminal’s bank account where the funds are quickly transferred or withdrawn.
A garda spokesperson said: "In many instances the business does not know it is a victim of this crime until sometime later when the legitimate supplier sends a reminder invoice for payment."
A businessman who was the victim of the scam has provided the following advice to those who are at risk:
- Incoming and outgoing mails can be blocked or redirected without you being aware.
- Assume all emails are always being read by fraudsters for extended periods of time and that those responsible for payments within your company are a special target for hackers and their email history is being monitored.
- Check all incoming email addresses- that they are correct and coming from a trusted source.
- It's important also to check other email addresses copied on the mail chain, in order to check that they are also genuine.
- The hackers by blocking others on the mail chain isolates the individual making the payment-thus removing any other stakeholder from questioning the payment process.
- Simple changes such as swopping, adding or deleting letters in a mail address are commonly used to fool you into thinking it’s coming from a genuine source.
- Change requests are a red flag. Be especially vigilant for any requested changes of bank payment details, for example, amounts to be paid, account number, name of bank etc.
- Always pick up the phone to your supplier/vendor to verbally confirm the change request details.
Detective Chief Superintendent Pat Lordan, of the Garda National Economic Crime Bureau had the following advice for business: "Victims of Invoice Redirect Fraud range from very small businesses to large companies and the consequences of falling for a scam of this nature can be catastrophic and result in the closure of businesses and redundancies.
"If you are not sure pick up the phone and speak to someone in the invoicing company."
