5 tips to protect against Business Email Scam (AKA Redirection fraud)
1-Call : Any change in account details received on email/fax must be validated through call at already known phone number.
2- Test Transaction : When making fund transfer based on account details received through non- personal channels (email, fax, courier), always conduct a test transaction of small value, confirm the receipt with beneficiary through phone call (already known number).
3-Don't trust account title: In the era of automated payments, there's no compulsion on banks in various jurisdictions to validate account title before affecting payment. Banks usually rely on the account number/IBAN (or IBAN equivalent) to credit the payment even if account title doesn't match. So if you get a different account number for making payment and account title is same as usual account title, it doesn't mean that actual account title for the new account number is same.
4-Control supplier account number update process : There may be a request to update account number without asking for any payments, this may come up later. Treat any account number changes request as a major change and validate it through means mentioned above (Tip 1- Call to validate)
5- Respond to queries of your bank: If your bank asks you to validate payment details with your supplier don't do such verifications through email, if you didn't do it earlier, call the supplier as per Tip 1 above.
Above all treat any change from past pattern with suspicion, and validate change requests received through email, fax, and courier by calls to, preferably landline, already known number and by talking to already known person.
2- Test Transaction : When making fund transfer based on account details received through non- personal channels (email, fax, courier), always conduct a test transaction of small value, confirm the receipt with beneficiary through phone call (already known number).
3-Don't trust account title: In the era of automated payments, there's no compulsion on banks in various jurisdictions to validate account title before affecting payment. Banks usually rely on the account number/IBAN (or IBAN equivalent) to credit the payment even if account title doesn't match. So if you get a different account number for making payment and account title is same as usual account title, it doesn't mean that actual account title for the new account number is same.
4-Control supplier account number update process : There may be a request to update account number without asking for any payments, this may come up later. Treat any account number changes request as a major change and validate it through means mentioned above (Tip 1- Call to validate)
5- Respond to queries of your bank: If your bank asks you to validate payment details with your supplier don't do such verifications through email, if you didn't do it earlier, call the supplier as per Tip 1 above.
Above all treat any change from past pattern with suspicion, and validate change requests received through email, fax, and courier by calls to, preferably landline, already known number and by talking to already known person.
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