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Gardaí warn of Invoice Redirect
Fraud
11.11.19
AN Garda Síochána
wishes to warn businesses in Inishowen of the
continuing existence of Invoice Redirect Fraud and
urges companies to treat any request to change bank
account details with extreme caution.
In recent weeks there has been a noticeable increase
in this type of crime. Criminals have succeeded in
defrauding companies of substantial amounts of
money: One company in Ireland lost over €200,000,
another lost almost $500,000 and many businesses
have lost smaller amounts of money. |
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An Garda Síochána warn businesses in
Inishowen of the continuing existence of Invoice
Redirect Fraud. |
In crimes of this
nature, criminals send emails to
businesses/individuals 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 the supplier, to bank accounts controlled
by the criminals. These requests can also come by
way of a letter or phone call so caution should be
taken with 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transferred or withdrawn.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
Detective Chief Superintendent Pat Lordan, of the
Garda National Economic Crime Bureau had the
following advice for businesses, ‘Victims of Invoice
Redirect Fraud range from very small businesses to
large companies and the consequences of falling for
a scam of this nature can be catastrophic and result
in the closure of businesses and redundancies. If
you are not sure pick up the phone and speak to
someone in the invoicing company.’ |
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