Interceptors

This is a cautionary tale worth repeating as it still catching out people in the trade. Customers and subcontrators are increasingly using email to send and receive bank details for payment of cars, services and work done. While you may trust the person who is emailing you the details implicitly, you cannot be certain that their email hasn’t been hacked.

Here’s how the scam works: someone puts their bank sort code and account number in an email. The hacked email account sees these numbers and automatically changes them to the fraudster’s details before the email is received. The payee transfers the cash in good faith and nobody is any the wiser until questions are asked as to when payment will be made.

Then the trouble starts. ‘Nobody is the wiser until someone asks when payment will be made’

The banks don’t want to know. The police are – astonishingly – saying this a ‘civil matter’. How that is, I don’t know?

So never accept an emailed bank account number even if that person has sent you the details before and the transaction went through without issue. Always call the person being paid to confirm the bank account numbers before paying.