Can your accounts staff spot malicious invoice scams?
Working in business accounts can be a risky place with the amount of cybercrime surrounding invoices, accounts and payments. Your accounts staff should be informed and given the confidence to be able to spot an invoice scam email, to protect your business. It is important that employees paying invoices for the business are properly trained and there is a procedure in place if they are unsure about an invoice. Invoice scams are very convincing and can cost your business severely. However, there are a few tell tale signs to look out for. Below are a couple of examples with advice and tips.
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Invoice scams
Cybercriminals target business accounts emails by sending them an invoice for goods or service. The invoice states it is overdue and that payment is urgent otherwise there will be a consequence. There are also sometimes threats of poor credit-rating if the payment is not completed. This invoice is fake and the goods or service were never provided to the business. The important thing to do if you receive an invoice scam email, is to check the validity of the email before deciding it is a scam. Then secondly, never ever pay then money. It can be hard to trace and claim back the money.
Example of scam invoice email
Take action
Thing to watch out for
- Schemes that claim you will make a lot of money
- Investment schemes
Report it!
- Call your bank immediately and inform them of any payments you have just made
- Phone us straight away on 0800 680 00 88 and report it to Action Fraud
Protect yourself and your business
- Don’t assume that the scheme is real. It can still be professional looking but not genuine. Cybercriminals use well-known brand names to trick victims into trusting them
- If you are looking at an investment scheme, don’t be pushed or rushed into any investment. Genuine investment companies will never rush you or force you
- Get advice before investing into anything
- Avoid unwanted invitations for investments
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