Forged letters are costing businesses
Businesses face losing thousands of pounds in a new and sophisticated fraud scam, Warwickshire County Council’s Trading Standards Service is warning.
Most businesses now prefer to pay their suppliers by direct transfer into their bank account, as this is much more efficient than payment by cheque.
Criminal gangs have begun using convincing forged ‘bank account changes’ letters to channel payments for invoices in to their own accounts, instead of those of genuine suppliers.
The forged letters have been sent out to a variety of businesses, Housing Associations and other organisations.
One company reported nearly losing £500,000 after a payment that should have gone to a supplier, nearly ended up in the account of a fraudster. Only last minute checks prevented the money transfer taking place.
The business had received a letter which it thought was sent by one of its suppliers changing bank account details. Instead the letter had been sent by a fraudster.
The forged letters are made to look as genuine as possible and carry real names, addresses, phone numbers and signatures, usually scanned from annual reports.
Email addresses look similar to that of the genuine company, but are operated by the fraudsters.
Payments departments are advised to double check any requests received from their suppliers to change bank account payment details. Requests should be verified using publicly listed names and telephone numbers, not those printed on the letter.