Payment Fraud and Account Takeover

The ‘Intercepted Email’ Scam
You are sent fake payment details

You receive an email from someone you know about an invoice you were expecting. The email address looks correct, and the invoice matches the work done. However, when you check the payment details, they differ from what you have seen before. Trusting the sender’s email and the invoice, you go ahead and make the payment.

In fact, scammers have intercepted the email of a genuine individual.

Stay safe:

• Always call individuals or companies to confirm bank details, using an independently sourced telephone number (not the number given in the email). 
• Always visit websites via a search engine (not via links in emails).

The ‘Call Forward’ Scam
Your mobile phone is hijacked

This is a scam used by fraudsters when they have already gained access to your account by criminal means.

You receive a telephone call, apparently from the bank, telling you that your account has been compromised. The caller asks you to type a series of numbers beginning *21* into your phone – they explain this is so you can receive secure notifications about your account.

In fact, the caller is a scammer and you have just instructed your phone to forward calls to their number. Now, if someone from the bank makes a genuine enquiry about unusual payments made from your account, the scammer can pretend to be you and authorise the payments.

Stay safe:

• If you receive this type of call, hang up. It is not a call from the bank. Only a fraudster will ask you to type numbers into your mobile phone.