DANGER! Sending Payment Instructions Via Email

While emails can be an easy and efficient way of following up on chats had at meetings or business deals, it isn’t always as safe as you might assume.

Hackers have developed ways of spying on communication and infiltrating emails within businesses. It is now possible for them to hack into email accounts, without arousing suspicion to the owner or the company that their account has been accessed.

This allows them to read correspondence with colleagues and familiarise themselves with their victims professional relationships, making it easy to know who to target for funds.

If you receive an email from a colleague asking for money for a project – whether you know of it or not, make sure you adhere to this check list;

Am I familiar with the transaction?

Is the email from a plausible source?

Have I checked with them in person (walk over to their desk), or on the phone after the email was sent?

If you aren’t able to get in contact with the sender to verify, investigate yourself. Compare whether the bank details you’re being asked to make a transfer to, match the details you’ve made previous payments to. Scammers can convince you of authenticity by replicating exact email addresses, even senders.

Only once you have checked all of this, is it safe to go ahead with the payment.

What is Phishing?

Phishing is a fraudulent online method of coaxing sensitive information such as; usernames, passwords, credit card details, medical history, etc. through the use of emails, phone or text.

These emails are designed to seem legitimate and are sent by scammers posing as real people or companies that that person does business with.

In actual fact, they are from attackers looking to infiltrate your system or attain a payment or your credentials. It could include a prompt in the form of a link to a website or a simple request of payment details.

TIPS TO AVOID SCAMS:

1. If the email is from a sender you don’t recognise – DO NOT OPEN IT.

2. If the email is from a sender you DO recognise, but the subject line and message are regarding an issue unknown to you or asking for a payment, always call the person to CONFIRM the details.

3. Double check the sender’s email address – often scammers will misspell or add numbers to a familiar email to make it believable. E.g. if the real email is ‘[email protected]’, the scammer might use ‘[email protected]’

4. If the email isn’t addressed to anyone – be suspicious. If payments are being requested, it should at least greet your personally (Hi John). If the email goes right into requesting funds without any niceties or conversation topics familiar to you and that person, it could be a sign of phishing.

5. Some blackmail hackers will use scare tactics to get you to make a payment. This could be threats such as; ‘We will release your search history to your colleagues’ or ‘We will delete your database’, etc. followed by, ‘unless you make a payment to this account’. Don’t believe it and make your IT department aware.

6. Change your password regularly [See our post about how to create a secure password].

Your E-Mail Is Your Greatest Tool… And Biggest Threat

Because we rely on email so much to run our businesses, it’s our greatest tool (no matter how much you might sigh when you see how many unread emails you have).

But because there’s so much activity in there. And you can receive emails from anyone, it’s the most common way to try to breach your business.

Hackers are targeting every business, every day. Using clever automated tools.

In this new video we show you some of the common cyber crimes that start in emails. And how to protect your business.

We’re iceConnect, looking after businesses in London. And we’re very much on your side. Let’s work together to keep the hackers out.

Watch our brand new video now.