Businesses alerted to online scammers following losses of €700,000
The criminals purport to be a legitimate supplier of a business and instruct them to send any new payments to a new bank account.
Some of the businesses do so and when they make a payment, that money is quickly transferred or withdrawn.
The scam, known as invoice redirect fraud, is being targeted by the Money Laundering Investigation Unit (MLIU) of the Garda Economic Crime Bureau.
“This is real,” said Chief Superintendent Pat Lordan of the bureau.
“This can bring down your business.”
He said that despite media coverage of the crime, they were still seeing businesses “from the quite small to big companies” being affected.
“This is money gone from your company: there’s no comeback if it’s gone,” he said. “So, it can have a huge impact. If you are hit for €100,000, your company could be wiped out. There’s no recourse unless we are contacted immediately. Really after three to five days, say goodbye. Prevention is the key.”
Chief Supt Lordan said that at a particularly busy time of year for businesses, employees should treat any request from their suppliers to change bank account details with “extreme caution”.
He said invoice redirect fraud was a crime targeting businesses working with suppliers and businesses that regularly perform online financial transactions.
“In the last month alone there have been numerous attempts in relation to this type of fraud — in excess of €1.3m with actual losses amounting to over €700,000,” said Chief Supt Lordan.
“An Garda Siochana works very closely with the financial institution in this regard who have intercepted many transactions of this nature. However, it can be difficult to recover funds once they have left the jurisdiction, so prompt reporting is critical.”
Gardaí said criminals send emails to businesses purporting to one of their legitimate suppliers.
“These emails contain an instruction to change the bank account details that the business has for a legitimate supplier, to bank account details that ultimately benefit the criminals,” said the statement.
It said the requests can also be made by letter or through a phone call and that businesses should be aware of this.
“In many instances, the business does not know it is a victim of this crime until sometime later when the legitimate supplier sends a reminder invoice for payment.”
Gardaí said businesses should have “robust policies and procedures” in place for these situations, including consulting with a supervisory when requests come in and making “direct contact” with a trusted person in the organisation concerned.
Direct contact should also be made with an identifiable person in a company before a business relationship begins.
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