GARDAI wish to alert
the public to the threat of Invoice Redirect Fraud
or so called CEO Fraud. They urge businesses to
remind employees to treat any request to change bank
account details with extreme caution. So far in 2019
losses amounting to over €4,400,000, in respect of
this scam, have been reported to Gardaí.
In April 2019 alone, there have been numerous
attempts in relation to this type of fraud with in
excess of €2,270,000 stolen.
An Garda Síochána works very closely with the
Financial Institutions who have intercepted many
transactions of this nature however it can be
difficult to recover funds once they have left the
jurisdiction so prompt reporting is critical.
In crimes of this nature, criminals send emails to
businesses purporting to be one of their legitimate
suppliers. These emails contain a request to change
the bank account details that the business has for a
legitimate supplier, to bank account details that
ultimately benefit the criminals. These requests can
also come by way of letter or phone call so caution
should attach to any request of this nature.
The criminal intention is that when the legitimate
supplier next sends an invoice to the company
seeking payment for services rendered or goods
supplied, the victim business acts on the new
banking instructions and sends the payment to the
criminal’s bank account where the funds are quickly
transferred or withdrawn. In many instances the
business does not know it is a victim of this crime
until sometime later when the legitimate supplier
sends a reminder invoice for payment.
Businesses must ensure that they have robust
policies and procedures in place to deal with
requests of this nature. It is important to note
that victims of Invoice Redirect Fraud range from
very small businesses to large corporations and the
consequences of falling for a scam of this nature
can be catastrophic, so all employees should receive
training in relation to avoiding this type of scam. |
