Companies conned out of millions in a global email scam

GOVERNMENT bodies and hundreds of companies across Ireland have been defrauded out of millions by international criminal gangs, the Irish Mail on Sunday has learned.

The fraudsters, operating a global multimillion euro scam, have been tricking companies here into making large false payments.

The scam works by duping employees into directing payments into criminals’ bank accounts. Urgent email requests for payment are made to look like they have come from an official source.

An investigation led by the Garda Bureau of Fraud Investigation began after Government and semistate bodies as well as private businesses reported being duped out of millions of euro.

In some cases, single companies were defrauded out of hundreds of thousands of euros.

A source told the MoS this week: ‘Fraud squad detectives estimate the amount taken to be in the millions. Hundreds of companies have been hit and countless more attempts have been made.

‘The money is all being sent to what we call mule accounts that have been set up with the sole purpose of taking in this cash. Some accounts are in Ireland, more are abroad. Some frauds happen abroad and the accounts are here in Ireland.’

In one type of fraud, the criminal – posing as a supplier or a client – emails a company requesting that their bank details be updated.

Any payments are then directed into the mule account.

Another strategy is to take over the email account of a high-level executive and request that money be transferred into a specific bank account. Companies have also been duped by emails purporting to come from a client, with fake invoices attached.

‘These guys are doing their homework. They could spent six months doing their groundwork before they pounce,’ said a source.

The fraudsters bounce their IP addresses (a unique address assigned to every device connected to the internet) around to ensure that their location cannot be traced, and money is usually transferred to an account outside the country.

According to the source, a key figure behind the crime was arrested in Nigeria last month.

The 40-year-old man, known only as ‘Mike’, is alleged to head a network of 40 individuals behind global scams worth more than $60m, according to Interpol.