E-Mail interception // Scam

RUDOLF289

Good afternoon,

I just came across something rather worrying.

I e-mailed a client of my, asking him to make a payment for duty/VAT to revenue for a shipment we are handling on his behalf. I gave him the amount. They are familiar with this process as they have done this before.

Shortly after this e-mail, he received another e-mail, from MY e-mail address, with MY signature details at the bottom, with the following text ;

"quote"

Hello (name of my contact)

Revenue just adviced that their account can not reflect payments at the moment that you should make transfer of € 5257.52 available to the Beneficiary below:


Account name: xxxxxxxxx (name withheld by me)
Account Number: xxxxxxxx (account number withheld by me
Routing Number: xxxxxx (Again witheld by me)
Swift Code xxxxxxx
Bank Name: xxxxxxx
Bank Address: xxxxxxxxx

Confirm when transfer has been made

Thanks and regards

Signature

"unquote"

The account name appears to be an individual

The bank involved appears to be a US bank with a US address

Anybody come across this before ? Any suggestions where to report this ?

Needless to say, my client alerted me to this rather strange e-mail and the money is safe, i.e. will be transferred to revenue as usual.

I will also post this in accountancy

Any suggestions / replies welcome

Cheers,
Rudolf289

tricky D

Sounds like one of you could have some sort of malware. Less likely is some one 'in the middle'.

It might also be worth letting the FBI know.

RUDOLF289

Good afternoon,

it appears that one of my clients my have fallen victim of a similar scam as outlined above.

I would urge all concerned to be extra vigilant if a supplier all of a sudden requests payment to a different account than originally advised.

Also, would suggest that you advise the Gardai about any such attempt.

Cheers,
Rudolf289

seamus

If this is a different client which has fallen victim to the same scam, then your machines and/or network are probably compromised, and someone is catching your outgoing mails.

If you're not aware of how to track down the source of this and secure your network, I advise you to hire a technology security consultant immediately.

RUDOLF289

seamus wrote: »

If this is a different client which has fallen victim to the same scam, then your machines and/or network are probably compromised, and someone is catching your outgoing mails.

If you're not aware of how to track down the source of this and secure your network, I advise you to hire a technology security consultant immediately.

Hello Seamus,

Just to clarify; In this case I was not a party to the e-mail correspondence which was between a supplier in China and a client of mine based in Ireland, or indeed a party to the payment process.

I have only become aware of this case because we were chasing the supplier to release a shipment we have been nominated to handle, on the basis that payment was made last week by the consignee/client here in Ireland. Having seen the transfer made by my client, I suspect that the money was paid to an account that is not under the control of the Chinese supplier (in this case a UK bank account was used, which appeared on the face of it to be in the name of the supplier in China).

Since the previous incident, which directly involved me, I have upgraded my security software and have changed all my passwords.

Cheers,
Rudolf289