The Delaware State Police has issued a general scam alert advisory with information on an email scam that can affect businesses.
The warning does not necessarily mean a wave of activity is taking place. Instead, the alert focuses on crimes that continue to be reported in Delaware and nationwide.
Below are two that can affect businesses.
The Business Email Compromise (BEC)
This sophisticated scam targets businesses and individuals acting on wire transfer payments.
The Delaware State Police New Castle County Financial Crimes unit is more likely to see this scammer’s scheme because of the large number of businesses in that area.
The scam is frequently carried out when a subject compromises legitimate business e-mail accounts to conduct unlawful transfers of funds.
The scam may not always be associated with a request for the transfer of funds. A variation of the scam involves compromising legitimate business e-mail accounts and requesting personal information or tax information forms for employees.
The scheme, a few years ago, affected SevOne, a company with a center in Newark that provides software and hardware that monitors the performance of computer networks.
Further details
A business (Usually real estate, non-profit, or accounting firms) receives an email from a regular customer under a spoofed email domain. For example, Firstname.Lastname@delaware.gov has been changed to Firstname.Lastname@delaware.edu.
The suspect has already gained access to the business’ email accounts and is expecting a wire transfer or payment that is supposed to go to the original recipient. The suspect poses as the legitimate customer and requests a wire transfer to a bank account. If the business doesn’t catch the minor change money may be sent to the suspect.
When the accounts are later remedied the victim realizes the mistaken money transfer.
A variation can occur in
To find out more click on the following link: PSA FBI
The long-running gift card scam
The long-running scams involve a suspect posing as the IRS, FBI, law enforcement or some other agency. The scammers are usually asking for payments to be made with Google Play or other gift cards.
In some cases, businesses are called by someone claiming to be a utility, telecom or other service representatives over an unpaid bill.
The victims are instructed to go to a store and purchase gift cards. The victim is then told to scratch the coating off of the back of the purchased cards and read it over the phone. In such cases, the money cannot be traced.
According to the State Police, purchasing a gift card for payment is never legitimate and such demands should be reported to law enforcement.
These suspects can be convincing and may have information on unsuspecting victims which makes them seem legitimate.
Click here to read the full release from Delaware State Police, which covers a variety of scams, including robocalls and grandchildren, allegedly needing bail money.
