Image: colourbox.de
The entrepreneur from the Wels-Land district had been in contact with his business partner in Indonesia for years. He shouldn’t have become suspicious when a new account number appeared on an invoice from his business partner. A mistake that cost the entrepreneur $90,000.
As yet unknown perpetrators had latched onto the two business partners’ e-mail traffic in the spring. Then they falsified an invoice and sent it to the Austrian businessman. A total of three times he transferred to the wrong account. The fraud only became apparent after the managing director had received no confirmation of the shipment of the containers he had ordered and no other feedback either.
“Better to ask too often”
It’s becoming increasingly important to be suspicious and to ask questions one time too often than to be caught by scammers, says Gerald Sakoparnig from the State Criminal Police Office in Upper Austria. “It’s not always malware – there are dangers lurking in normal business transactions, too,” says the criminalist. “If someone I’ve been in contact with for years suddenly gives a new account number, you shouldn’t transfer it, but ask the person if that’s actually correct,” says Gerald Sakoparnig. In the case of mail traffic, he advises not to reply to the corresponding mail, but to forward it to the address that you have saved from the business partner. “Otherwise you end up back with the perpetrators.”
Business people in particular should pay more attention to where they transfer money – but also private individuals, according to the criminalist. “If someone has been making transfers to an electricity provider for years and suddenly there should be a new account number: ask.”
Source: Nachrichten
