Scam warning as payments land

Farmershavebeenwarned that the industry could be set to be a target for cunning cyber criminals as loan payments from the Scottish Government hit their bank accounts.

Experts from the Scottish Business Resilience Centre (SBRC) yesterday said they believed this widely publicised payment makes farmers a prime target for cyber criminals. They added that by conducting simple research it was possible for anyone to find out how much an individual farm- er had received in previous years – and to calculate how much they will likely receive this year.

Gerry Grant, chief ethical hacker with the SBRC, said: “I know how vital these payments are to farmers and crofters. This makes it even more important that they’re fully aware that it can make them an easy target for criminals to try and scam them.”

He said that criminals could easily work out an accurate estimation of what a farmer were likely to receive in CAP payments and they could use this information to secure the trust of farmers with a view to stealing the money.

“They can send various e-mails to try and get passwords for bank accounts or even try and trick unsuspecting farmers into making payments to the wrong account.”

He said this type of cybercrime was known as CEO or Mandate fraud and could potentially put famers’ livelihoods at risk.

Farmers were urged to be conscious that they could be targeted over the coming weeks and should be extra vigilant about any suspicious emails or phone calls.