There have recently been some emails going around that may appear to be predominantly from your boss, accounts department or management on the face of it. These emails specifically relate to the transfer of money, please note if these have appeared out of the blue they are very likely not real and in fact could be fraudsters attempting to cloak themselves behind what appears to be a legitimate email from an internal member of staff.
The vast majority of businesses don’t require transfers of money in such a way in any case, so please remain vigilant; especially if this type of question arises.
Ahead4 recommend you always write a separate email to confirm this is official and we also recommend you copy in relevant staff personnel so this isn’t a confined incident and more people are aware. Additionally, make direct contact with the “requestor” be it your boss, accounts member or management staff member by phone internally or in person to doubly find out.
We have already seen some unfortunate incidents and wish to warn our customers in the event you are targeted. For more information, we recommend you have read the below article to educate yourself on how wide spread this form of fraud is and the implications:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-35250678
To sum up, ALWAYS:
Check with your boss, accounts department or management personnel if such an email appears.
Copy other staff members into a new email to the requestor questioning the one you have received.
Make direct contact with your boss, account department or management personnel by phone or in person in addition to the email to doubly confirm.
The more people that are aware of such a request the better, as this makes it near impossible for the fraudster to manipulate staff members into seemingly harmful actions.
Ahead4
