[Garda] Invoice redirection fraud alert

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Source http://www.garda.ie/Controller.aspx?Page=14738

The Garda Bureau of Fraud Investigation has recently detected a pattern of criminal activity that has the potential to cause serious financial losses to Public / Private Businesses.

Up to 14 cases have been reported to date, with potential losses of over €5m, however €100k has been stolen. A number such bodies based around the country have received fraudulent instructions in the recent weeks via Email or letter which instructed them to record new account details for their various clients. There is no pattern in the fraudulent account details as they involve different financial institutions in both Ireland and the UK.
As a result of the various businesses having received these fraudulent instructions, these businesses transferred money to the various bank accounts in payment of due debts. However due to the vigilance of the various financial institutions, most of the money was either prevented from having been sent in the first instance or recovered.

The Garda Bureau of Fraud Investigation now request that all businesses conduct an immediate review of any instructions that they have received from customers involving a request for a change of account details. As a security precaution it should be confirmed by verbal contact with the relevant financial control person in each business that purportedly sent change of account instructions as to whether they were genuine instructions or not.

Where any business suspects that such an attempt was made or indeed where they have received such a request they should immediately contact their local Garda station and their bank.
The Garda Bureau of Fraud Investigation are liaising closely with the Banking and Payments Federation of Ireland, please see attached crime prevention advice

jimmii

Thanks for posting hadn't seen this.

Buttercake

If one of my clients paid on time i would think there was something strange going on

RUDOLF289

Buttercake wrote: »

If one of my clients paid on time i would think there was something strange going on

You would not know because the money would not go to your a/c. I have seen two instances very close up. One was an e-mail one of my clients received - purported to come from me - requesting that funds payable to Revenue be paid to a private a/c in the USA ........ That one was very easy to spot.

Not so easy to spot was one where one of my clients was dealing with a company in China. In the process he was advised - instead of transfering money to the companies a/c in China - to transfer funds to their UK bank a/c. The UK account was in the name of the company in China. That caused a significant loss.

In both cases there was a Nigerian involvement. They had hacked the e-mail accounts and sent e-mails that came from the party that each had been dealing with, complete with e-mail signatures and reply address. Especially the one where funds were transferred to a bank account in the UK was quite sophisticated as it involved actually setting up an account in the UK in the name of the Chinese company. How they managed to do that, with all the controls - allegedly - involved in setting up an a/c is the big question.

Indeed it is good that these practises are being exposed and hopefully it helps other companies / people falling into that trap.

Cheers,
Rudolf289