Your risk from email fraud
E-mail Fraud
There has been an increase in fraud when bank account details are provided in an e-mail.
Hacking
It is easier, and far more common than you may think, for e-mail accounts to be hacked.
Why
Once hacked, fraudsters (sometimes operating on a corporate scale from disreputable countries) scan your e-mails waiting for any requests for you to:
- provide your bank account details, or
- make a payment to some else’s bank account.
When this happens, the fraudster can divert payment to their own bank account.
How
The fraudster sends an email using your email account, posing as you but providing their bank account details.
Level of Complexity
We are aware of corporate level fraudsters in foreign jurisdictions who hire a large number of specialist employees, including linguists to study how you converse in e-mails to better enable the fraudster to pose as you.
Our advice
We strongly advise you to use the least risk methods of communicating bank account details, as we do not accept liability for mistaken payments – see our:
- risk analysis of communication methods, and
- standard terms of engagement.
January 2018