The $140,000 Phishing Trip (Almost!)
August 3, 2021
Earlier this week we had a client who got phished. They received an email, and it looks like it's from one of their officers in the company. And the interesting thing was they had been emailing with this officer about a particular product sale they were working on with a client and the officer emailed the salesperson and said, "Hey, this client's agreed to buy."
"Please send them wiring instructions so that they can send over money to purchase our product. And here are the wiring instructions."
And so the sales guy said, "Sure, I'll send that right over." He forwarded that to his contact that he had been working with and that contact sent it to his accounting group. Who then tried to send $140,000 back to my client, a wire transfer. Thankfully their bank called them and said, "This looks a little fishy. Can you verify the numbers?"
So they went back through the trail, back to my client. Who went to the sales guy who went to his officer who said, "Nope, never sent that to you don't know what you're talking about."
How did this happen? After digging into his email, we found that he had opened up an attachment from a source which he didn't know, and had installed some virus malware on his computer and people had been able to get in.
The interesting thing they do here is they got into your email, and this is typically how it works, and they set up forwarding rules for anything to do with wire transfers, bank accounts, anything financial. Those emails never hit your inbox and get forwarded to the hackers automatically all in the background. And then the email gets deleted. So that person never sees it. Never even knows it was there.
And then they'll pull that wire transfer info. They'll substitute a form with letterhead, with the correct email addresses, with the correct names and obviously incorrect wiring information and email it out. You don't want to click on anything you don't know who it's from. Make a phone call first and verify that this is from who you think it is.
We had tons of security systems in place for them. We had a spam filter. We have antivirus controls, a firewall, and they were obviously not very happy. But there's nothing out there that is 100% secure. Nothing out there that is 100% full-proof that will stop every single thing coming through. So some of the responsibility does fall on the end customer and the end user to be knowledgeable. We send out a lot of training on this, but not everyone watches it.
So we suggest you make a phone call and just verify. In the long run, it'll cost you a lot less. Thankfully their bank caught it, and shut it down. Otherwise they would have wired out $140,000 to an overseas bank account.
Do you need help staying secure? Give us a call!
Get all links, resources and show notes at https://itoverdrivepodcast.com/10
Earlier this week we had a client who got phished. They received an email, and it looks like it's from one of their officers in the company. And the interesting thing was they had been emailing with this officer about a particular product sale they were working on with a client and the officer emailed the salesperson and said, "Hey, this client's agreed to buy."
"Please send them wiring instructions so that they can send over money to purchase our product. And here are the wiring instructions."
And so the sales guy said, "Sure, I'll send that right over." He forwarded that to his contact that he had been working with and that contact sent it to his accounting group. Who then tried to send $140,000 back to my client, a wire transfer. Thankfully their bank called them and said, "This looks a little fishy. Can you verify the numbers?"
So they went back through the trail, back to my client. Who went to the sales guy who went to his officer who said, "Nope, never sent that to you don't know what you're talking about."
How did this happen? After digging into his email, we found that he had opened up an attachment from a source which he didn't know, and had installed some virus malware on his computer and people had been able to get in.
The interesting thing they do here is they got into your email, and this is typically how it works, and they set up forwarding rules for anything to do with wire transfers, bank accounts, anything financial. Those emails never hit your inbox and get forwarded to the hackers automatically all in the background. And then the email gets deleted. So that person never sees it. Never even knows it was there.
And then they'll pull that wire transfer info. They'll substitute a form with letterhead, with the correct email addresses, with the correct names and obviously incorrect wiring information and email it out. You don't want to click on anything you don't know who it's from. Make a phone call first and verify that this is from who you think it is.
We had tons of security systems in place for them. We had a spam filter. We have antivirus controls, a firewall, and they were obviously not very happy. But there's nothing out there that is 100% secure. Nothing out there that is 100% full-proof that will stop every single thing coming through. So some responsibility does fall on the end customer and the end user to be knowledgeable. We send out a lot of training on this, but not everyone watches it.
So we suggest you make a phone call and just verify. In the long run, it'll cost you a lot less. Thankfully their bank caught it, and shut it down. Otherwise, they would have wired out $140,000 to an overseas bank account.
Do you need help staying secure? Give us a call!
Get all links, resources and show notes at https://itoverdrivepodcast.com/10
Host info
Kelly Herrod, the founder and CEO of Herrod Technology, started the company in 2000 to provide simple IT solutions for small and mid-sized businesses. His personal approach, over 30 years experience and his ability to simplify IT sets him apart in the IT industry.
Website - https://herrodtech.com/
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/kelly-herrod-27a1633/
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/herrodtech
Email - kelly@herrodtech.com
"Please send them wiring instructions so that they can send over money to purchase our product. And here are the wiring instructions."
And so the sales guy said, "Sure, I'll send that right over." He forwarded that to his contact that he had been working with and that contact sent it to his accounting group. Who then tried to send $140,000 back to my client, a wire transfer. Thankfully their bank called them and said, "This looks a little fishy. Can you verify the numbers?"
So they went back through the trail, back to my client. Who went to the sales guy who went to his officer who said, "Nope, never sent that to you don't know what you're talking about."
How did this happen? After digging into his email, we found that he had opened up an attachment from a source which he didn't know, and had installed some virus malware on his computer and people had been able to get in.
The interesting thing they do here is they got into your email, and this is typically how it works, and they set up forwarding rules for anything to do with wire transfers, bank accounts, anything financial. Those emails never hit your inbox and get forwarded to the hackers automatically all in the background. And then the email gets deleted. So that person never sees it. Never even knows it was there.
And then they'll pull that wire transfer info. They'll substitute a form with letterhead, with the correct email addresses, with the correct names and obviously incorrect wiring information and email it out. You don't want to click on anything you don't know who it's from. Make a phone call first and verify that this is from who you think it is.
We had tons of security systems in place for them. We had a spam filter. We have antivirus controls, a firewall, and they were obviously not very happy. But there's nothing out there that is 100% secure. Nothing out there that is 100% full-proof that will stop every single thing coming through. So some responsibility does fall on the end customer and the end user to be knowledgeable. We send out a lot of training on this, but not everyone watches it.
So we suggest you make a phone call and just verify. In the long run, it'll cost you a lot less. Thankfully their bank caught it, and shut it down. Otherwise, they would have wired out $140,000 to an overseas bank account.
Do you need help staying secure? Give us a call!
Get all links, resources and show notes at https://itoverdrivepodcast.com/10
Host info
Kelly Herrod, the founder and CEO of Herrod Technology, started the company in 2000 to provide simple IT solutions for small and mid-sized businesses. His personal approach, over 30 years experience and his ability to simplify IT sets him apart in the IT industry.
Website - https://herrodtech.com/
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/kelly-herrod-27a1633/
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/herrodtech
Email - kelly@herrodtech.com