Fraudsters are betrayed by unusual pressure
“Scammers are sending emails pretending to be colleagues in order to collect important information and thus make a profit. You may receive an email out of the blue. a letter from the company’s CEO with a request to immediately purchase gift cards or disclose data for another future purchase on behalf of the company. The fraud itself can take various forms, but the ultimate goal is to somehow cheat money out of you or the company you work for,” D. Drakickas warns.
According to the expert, this type of fraud is carried out with the help of psychological manipulation. Fraudsters try to create a misleading sense of urgency when they are asked to reveal sensitive company information very quickly.
Therefore, after receiving this kind of e-mail letter, D. Drakickas advises to take your time and carefully and critically read the received information, assess whether it sounds logical. One should be especially skeptical if e-mail the person sending the letter is asking you to keep something quiet.
“It can be seen that fraudsters ask for strict confidentiality when communicating with their victim. When applying such manipulations, the victim is given the false impression that it is necessary to urgently carry out the tasks assigned by a high-ranking colleague and not tell anyone about it,” says the expert.
3 simple security steps
According to D. Drakik, after receiving a suspicious letter from an alleged co-worker or company director, it is necessary to check the information and take 3 steps:
- Directly contact a colleague who allegedly sent a suspicious email. a letter. The best way is to discuss the information with him live. If this is not possible, contact a colleague by phone or e-mail. by post Be vigilant and use only verified and old contacts for communication – do not rely on suspicious e-mail. the information in the letter because it belongs to the threat actor.
- Check email postal address. In such a situation, it is necessary to make sure that the received mail is sent from the company’s domain. Sometimes this is extremely difficult to recognize, as scammers purchase domains that look similar to your company’s, with just a few numbers or letters different. In case of suspicion of e-mail authenticity of the email address, you should copy and paste the half of the domain address into the browser. If you can’t open such a website, you are probably dealing with scammers.
- Follow internal procedures. Requests related to corporate finance and procurement must be coordinated with human resources, procurement or accounting departments. Such processes are quite strictly defined and described in the company’s internal documents. By following a defined procedure, you are less likely to become a victim of fraud.
The expert advises not to click on any links or open any documents that are distributed with such letters. They may contain malware and viruses, or attempts to trick you into logging in or banking information.
According to D. Drakik, special additional protection can help protect against these cyber threats on the Internet.
2024-08-27 11:34:17