News Beware of Email Scams

I've been done as has my business partner. I managed to get my money back ($27K) but partner lost more. Very stressful experience.

Mine was very sophisticated. It appears they hacked in months earlier and just lay in wait waiting for a keyword to pop up, then they sent a fake email from my address to someone who was about to pay me money changing banking details. They even used my style of writing and the guy who received it (someone i'd known for years) was none the wiser, and neither was I (the emails were set up to be buried in one of those folders nobody ever looks at, like RSS feeds).

We now have a firm policy that any payment or receipt over $5K must be confirmed via a second method (text or call). Everybody should be doing this, as well as having 2 step authentication for accessing email from new devices.
 
This is why I hate ebanking. Any transfer done electronically for me needs approval first. It will send a SMS with a code to my phone which I must then enter prior to payment being made. I then receive another SMS confirming payment.
 
Wahesh said:
This is why I hate ebanking. Any transfer done electronically for me needs approval first. It will send a SMS with a code to my phone which I must then enter prior to payment being made. I then receive another SMS confirming payment.
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That's definitely important for security generally - but it wouldn't stop this type of scam where hackers change details on the invoice.
 
CroydonDog said:
I've been done as has my business partner. I managed to get my money back ($27K) but partner lost more. Very stressful experience.

Mine was very sophisticated. It appears they hacked in months earlier and just lay in wait waiting for a keyword to pop up, then they sent a fake email from my address to someone who was about to pay me money changing banking details. They even used my style of writing and the guy who received it (someone i'd known for years) was none the wiser, and neither was I (the emails were set up to be buried in one of those folders nobody ever looks at, like RSS feeds).

We now have a firm policy that any payment or receipt over $5K must be confirmed via a second method (text or call). Everybody should be doing this, as well as having 2 step authentication for accessing email from new devices.
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Pretty much word fir word thing happened to my company
 
CroydonDog said:
That's definitely important for security generally - but it wouldn't stop this type of scam where hackers change details on the invoice.
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looking back was there anything you could see showing that it was a scam on face value
 
Rodzilla said:
looking back was there anything you could see showing that it was a scam on face value
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From my end, no. From his end, only really that i'd changed the bank account details last minute. If he had procedures in place for making payments it would have been stopped.

Funny thing was that i saw him at a function a few hours after he made the payment and he told me he'd done it. If he had have said anything about the new account etc, we could have probably stopped it in its tracks. The money immediately went to a third account with a different bank and then off to Nigeria. I was quite lucky to get the money back - but the problem was that, technically i was not a party to the fraudulent transaction, but my mate who made the payment was so persistent with his bank (he did feel terrible about it all).
 
Fuck I hate thieves, scummy c***s.
 
BELMORE said:
Fuckn oath. Hate this shit, all the ID fraud shit as well. Chop their fingers off
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would be great, but the perpetrators are in places like Nigeria and Russia, where even their own authorities/governments don't give a fuck.
 
CroydonDog said:
would be great, but the perpetrators are in places like Nigeria and Russia, where even their own authorities/governments don't give a fuck.
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Not they don't give a fuck, they take a cut.

Indian scam centres have been hacked by western hackers and they've informed authorities who don't do anything, because they're working with them.
 
Speaking of potential scams I got a call from the ‘ATO’ this morning. Very well spoken, Australian accent etc. I was busy and asked for contact details so I could call them back when I was free. They said it would be best for them to call me back and asked when I’d be available. Smelling a rat I said ‘20min’ - they agreed. 3 hours later no call back...inefficiency or...?
 
DinkumDog said:
Speaking of potential scams I got a call from the ‘ATO’ this morning. Very well spoken, Australian accent etc. I was busy and asked for contact details so I could call them back when I was free. They said it would be best for them to call me back and asked when I’d be available. Smelling a rat I said ‘20min’ - they agreed. 3 hours later no call back...inefficiency or...?
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Haha scammers these days! So lazy.

My phone doesn’t even ring unless I’ve got the number saved and I love it
 
DinkumDog said:
Speaking of potential scams I got a call from the ‘ATO’ this morning. Very well spoken, Australian accent etc. I was busy and asked for contact details so I could call them back when I was free. They said it would be best for them to call me back and asked when I’d be available. Smelling a rat I said ‘20min’ - they agreed. 3 hours later no call back...inefficiency or...?
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Sounds legit. Scammers are generally more efficient than the Australian government.
 
Always check the reference number on your tax if you receive anything from your accountant. They sometimes make mistakes that could be costly.
 
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