Very simply, fraudsters will more than likely hack into your email to intercept a conversation stream that involves the movement of funds and will try to disrupt and re-route the funds to a bank account under their control.

These fraudsters operate all over the world and can hack into the safest email networks to steal funds. Firstly, they will recruit people into a scam (like a “work at home” opportunity) and end up acting as money mules. They will then withdraw the money enticing the mules with a percentage of the ill-gotten gains.

Even if by then you have reported it to the bank, it is almost impossible to trace the funds and unless you have some sort of insurance to recoup the losses, such as a Cyber Liability Policy that specially includes cybercrime. In most cases though, the funds are lost for ever.

How to prevent hacker losses:

When receiving an email for the first time from ANY company or individual, you must always call the intended recipient of your funds on their recognised telephone number and confirm with them the bank details they have sent you.

If you are sending funds to a recipient regularly and then receive an email from them advising of a change of bank details, then once again before sending anything, you must confirm by telephone that the email has come from them and then verbally confirm the amended bank details.

Never, obviously, confirm by email as you are just confirming with the fraudster!

These measures might sound obvious, but it is most important that every new company or individual that you transfer money to, even if you have their invoice with logo on, must be verified. These fraudsters will produce fake invoices with the names and addresses you recognise to con you out of your funds.

Never trust anyone until a verbal confirmation has been made. Always go to the enth degree to make sure you are sending your funds to the correct account.

If you wish to discuss any part of this blog, then please do get in touch with www.swfx.co.uk