Protect Yourself from Scams

Invoice Scams

Invoice scams are very common in B2B. A scammer will somehow gain access to a legitimate invoice, add their own bank details and resend the invoice to you, impersonating the trusted individual or organisation.

Less convincing examples are where they send a fake invoice from a masked email address but more convincing examples are where they email you through a compromised email account from a trusted organisation, or even a compromised account within your organisation.

How can you protect yourself?

• Maintain good password practice to prevent your email accounts from being compromised.
• Change of bank details, what? This already feels suspicious as it's not normal business practice to change bank details without formal notice.
• Does the invoice look legitimate? Often the tampered information will look out of place and they don't follow the formatting for the rest of the document.
• Does the bank look suspicious? Usually, they will use very obscure banks, one you've probably never heard of.

Still in doubt? Call the organisation on a trusted phone number to confirm the legitimacy. This should be standard procedure for all businesses when a vendor changes bank information.

Phishing, Smishing and Vishing

Phishing, smishing and vishing are when someone tries to scam you via email, SMS text or phone call. You receive communication that appears to be genuine but it has the malicious intention of trying to collect your personal card details,  account passwords or other sensitive information.

Scammers will often create authentic-looking emails impersonating organisations you trust. Through this email, they will pressure you into logging into your account via their bogus login page "to prevent your stored files being deleted" or because "someone has tried to reset your password". These are sure signs of a scam.

Other attempts might be more personal, where they pretend to be a colleague or manager (Spear-Phishing or Whaling) and trick you into parting with money. Usually, for this to happen, they already have some background on you (name, job, email), sourced either online or via another data breach.

How you can protect yourself

• Always be wary of any unexpected texts, calls or emails
• Look for the obvious signs that it's a scam: spelling mistakes, poor grammar, weird tone of voice, persistence, invoking panic, corporate branding
• Don't be fooled by phone numbers or email addresses that look legitimate. Scammers can easily mask an email from-address or company phone number.
• Never reveal personal info like your pin, account login details, passwords, or mobile activation codes
• Where possible, hover (not click) over suspicious links with your cursor. If the URL looks suspicious, this is a sure sign of a scam.
• Most importantly: If in doubt, call the organisation on a trusted number to confirm the communication's legitimacy.

Malware

Malware is an umbrella term for any type of malicious software designed to exploit or disrupt any type of computer, server, client or computer network. Malware comes in all shapes and sizes: Viruses, Worms, Trojans, Ransomware, Bots, Spyware... Each is used in a different way but with one objective: to exploit you or your business for money.

One of the most common access points for Malware to get onto your company hardware is a malicious link in a phishing email. Stay vigilant and remember; if you weren't expecting the email or it just doesn't look/feel right, it's probably a scam!

We also strongly advise that you invest in the necessary anti-virus software for your company's IT infrastructure and for your personal computers.