Business Email Compromise (also called e-mail interception fraud) is a type of scam that targets companies and individuals who do electronic funds transfers (eft) from one person or entity to another.
Typically, the fraudsters hack the victims’ email accounts, intercept and redirect invoices, letters, and/or statements and then change the banking account details on those documents to reflect their nominated account details. i.e. the fraudster’s account. Payments are then, unwittingly, made to the fraudster…
It is done so cleverly that the victims do not notice anything untoward until it is too late!
In some instances, fraudsters re-create a company’s corporate letterhead so that it appears that the correspondence emanates from the company concerned. They can do the same to emails (and faxes).
A combination of email spoofing (spoofing changes a letter or domain in the email address to make it appear legitimate), computer intrusion (hacking your computer), and social engineering (the use of deception to manipulate individuals into divulging confidential or personal information that may be used for fraudulent purposes) is required to pull off this type of fraud.
What can you do to avoid this fraud?
Be wary of last-minute bank account address changes – If suddenly you receive an email from us (or any company) regarding a financial matter that the company’s bank account details have changed, call them and request verification of the bank account details before you make payment.
Check email addresses for slight changes – small changes can make fraudulent email addresses appear legitimate by resembling actual clients’ names. e.g. [email protected] vs bruce.day@geogle.com
Be wary of last-minute email account address changes – If you receive an email from us (or any company) regarding a financial matter that their email address has changed, call the company and request verification of the email address before corresponding further.
What we do
Before we make payment to you, of any amount, we will telephone you to confirm that the bank account details that you’ve given us are accurate and that a fraudster hasn’t intercepted your email to us and changed any of your documents to reflect the fraudster’s bank account.
What you can do
We expect that before you make payment into our trust account, that you telephone us to confirm that the bank account details that you’ve received from us are accurate and that a fraudster hasn’t intercepted our email to you to change any documents to reflect the fraudster’s bank account.
Our Trust bank account details
There are many ways that you can confirm our Trust bank account details, including, via email, telephonically, via WhatsApp, and via our website: