Fiji and China Business Share Tips on Hackers
There has been a continuous increase in the number of cyber-crime, particularly hacking, regarding trade between Fijian and Chinese companies which has been brought to light.
Jim Jixing Yang, of the China Chamber of Commerce in Fiji while speaking on Early Warning against the Crime Hacking Trade at the Nadi Chamber of Commerce and Industry forum on Saturday, shared some of the common practices of hackers that could help local business people in circumstances of hacking.
The event was held at the Nalagi Hotel on Queens Road, Nadi.
“Hackers begin by illegally gaining access to the emails of the trading companies and pounce on the background information of the business, as well as the contracts,” Mr Jim said.
“Hackers often portray the identification of companies involved (e.g. Chinese) without the knowledge of the company itself. “Therefore they gain from this misconception. Instances could include having hackers (international or locally based) pretending to be associates of “Chinese companies” involved, and therefore affirming transactions and contracts to be redirected or remitted to their accounts, via information they provide through hacked emails.” Mr Jim said new bank accounts may be in a different cities and locations, sometimes even in other parts of the world.
“As there is no strict control on the names of the account beneficiaries in some banks, hackers can still use Chinese company names as the beneficiary of their accounts to gain trust of victims.
“To convince the local business partners, hackers will make similar pro forma invoices with amended bank account information with the same imitated signature and stamp.
“Upon having amended accounts information, hackers will follow up with Fijian businessmen closely and push clients to make the remittance as prompt as possible.” Mr Jim said once the remittances arrived into hacker’s accounts, they immediately close all contacts after withdrawing all payments.
As a result, it makes it difficult to trace them back as they use bogus information initially.
“Holidays are usually a good time for hackers to make these deals because there is lack of communication between the two companies during this period,” he said.
“Consequently, some local (Fijian) businessmen eventually tend to doubt Chinese partners and contemplate that the latter companies extract more payments than they should.
“After wasting a lot of time to clarify the facts, it may be too late to retrieve the loss. “Local businesses have much more control in prevent hacking if they can fulfill the following: