Stay Safe from Fraud This Summer

We may all be thinking about our holidays. But fraudsters
are not sitting on the beach like us, they'll use this to try and catch us out. 

Natwest have had a number
of different fraud cases this week.  So we thought it
would be useful to share, as the fraudsters are using different techniques to
get a hand on our hard earned cash.

Director Email Scam

Financial Manager was emailed by her director a number of
different times during the day requesting payments to different people, she
didn’t think anything of it. It wasn’t until the Banks Security Team phoned up
that she realised what had happened, by this stage she had paid out £52,505.
Fortunately 2 of these bounced and we were able to claim one back very quickly.
However the customer has still lost £27,710 which may not be recoverable.

Do you have internal processes to determine how payments
are requested and validated?  Do you have dual control or payment limits
set up on Bankline? Does the request for payment feel ‘usual’?  This type
of scam is currently very common, and can be easily stopped if you have
procedures in place and all your team are aware of them.
     

 

Telephone Pin Fraud

The customer phoned a number for what they believed was our
Service Team. However, at the start of the call he was advised that his account
number didn’t exist. He was then asked for the first and third number on the PIN,
the line that went crackly  and he was then asked for the Second and
Fourth number. Thanks to being aware of this type of fraud, from the current
Barclays advert he got suspicious and hung up so fortunately no money lost.

The Bank will never ask for PIN or Password details!
 

 

Cheque Encashment

A fraudster went into a branch with a passport and a cheque
asking for cash. The Passport was in the Directors name, The branch did pay out
£3900 in cash. The fraudster then went into a second branch who did get
suspicious, and confiscated the passport and the cheque and reported to fraud.
The branch saved a further £3500 being paid out in cash.

Do you know where your cheque book is?  Is it secure
or just left on the desk? Keep it locked up when not in use!  

 

Invoice Interception Fraud

Two of these this week. Clients invoices were intercepted
and changed to say that the bank details had been changed and please pay the
new account details. Fortunately with both of them independent verification was
made to check that the changes were valid which stopped the fraudsters details
being substituted.

Always check from a known source if any payment details
are being changed on invoices.  

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These are all genuine
live cases from the past week so please stay vigilant.

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