A coach operator is trying to recover a five-figure sum after being victim of a fake invoice scam while trying to settle a vehicle purchase.
The business appears to have had its emails hacked and monitored by the cyber criminals, who then spotted the invoice for a six-figure sum and intercepted it.
They then subtly amended various details, including the payee bank sort code and account number, and resent the invoice two hours later. The fraudster requested the funds be split between three different accounts.
Darren Critchley of Odyssey Coach Sales, which acted as an agent for the sale, highlighted the fraud to warn others in the industry but respected the anonymity of the operator. “It’s made me feel physically sick,” says Mr Critchley, who is clearly not at fault and says he is doing all he can to help the operator recover the amount. “I feel terrible for these people. It’s not an amount of money I’d like to lose.”
Although Mr Critchley says this has never happened to any of his customers before, he points out this was the third instance of attempted scamming he had heard of the industry in under a week. The others involved emails with a QR code sent from apparently hacked email accounts which scammers urge the recipient to scan in.
Banks now allow customers to confirm the owner details of the account into which they are transferring funds. The Federation of Small Businesses advises, when paying new suppliers, to first transfer a small amount and then confirm with the intended payee using a trusted telephone number that the details were correct.
