In crimes of this nature, criminals send emails to businesses purporting to be one of their legitimate suppliers.
The Garda Bureau of Fraud Investigation has recently detected a pattern of criminal activity that they say has the potential to cause serious financial losses to both public and private businesses.
According to Gardaí, up to 14 cases have been reported to date, with potential losses of over €5 million. Another €100,000 has reportedly has been stolen.
In light of recent events, a number of businesses based around the country have received fraudulent instructions in the recent weeks which instructed them to record new account details for their various clients.
There is no pattern in the fraudulent account details as they involve different financial institutions in both Ireland and the UK.
The Garda Bureau of Fraud Investigation now requested that all businesses conduct an immediate review of any instructions that they have received from customers involving a request for a change of account details. As a security precaution, it should be confirmed by verbal contact with the relevant financial control person in each business that purportedly sent change of account instructions as to whether they were genuine instructions or not.
Invoice Redirect Fraud is a crime targeting businesses working with suppliers and businesses that regularly perform online financial transactions.
In crimes of this nature, criminals send emails to businesses purporting to be 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.
These requests can also come by way of letter or phone call so caution should attach to any request of this nature.
The criminal intent is that when the legitimate supplier next sends an invoice to the company seeking payment for services rendered or goods supplied, the victim business acts on the new banking instructions and sends the payment to the criminal’s bank account where the funds are quickly transferred or withdrawn.
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.
“While all cases are different, we want to warn that all Irish companies big and small are being targeted on a daily basis by individuals purporting to be from their suppliers,” Detective Chief Patrick Lordan of the Garda National Economic Crime Bureau said on Wednesday.
“These individuals will inform the company that their bank details have changed for payment of services so we would ask that companies only change their bank details through direct contact and not by email. The best thing to do is pick up the phone and talk to someone you know in the company.”
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