The modus operandi is that the business targeted will receive an email that appears to be from the supplier. Attached to the email is a letter that once again appears to be from the supplier’s Accounting Department. The letter appears to be a good copy of the company’s genuine letterhead. In the letter the targeted company is informed that the suppliers banking details have changed and that they should update their records to reflect the new banking information. To make this appear more authentic there is a letter from a major bank attached to the email that validates the new banking information.
“This is a professional syndicate, they have very good intelligence, are computer savvy and allegedly have members inside banks and delivery companies that assist and feed them information. They know whom to target and they know the targeted company’s suppliers. They also know that these companies pay their suppliers in excess of a million Rand on a monthly basis. I would suggest that if a company receives such an email from a supplier that they call the supplier to verify but do not use information on the email or letter, call them on a number that you already have for them. We are working on cases like this right now and would request that if any business anywhere in the country has been a victim of this type of fraud, or if you have received a similar email or letter, that they should please contact us with details as we are trying to link all these cases so that the police can make arrests. We keep all information received confidential, we understand the sensitivities involved with businesses not wanting it to be known that they have been a victim of a fraud.” said Hillcrest private investigator Rick Crouch