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Scams

Immediate Attention Required: Your Payment is Now Late – FAKE INVOICE SCAM!

I know of businesses that have been tricked by these type of scams, some of them have lost £1000’s. I got something like this before but they’d gone to EXTREME lengths to try and make it look as convincing as possible. This attempt could have fooled some people but seemed to have got itself a bit mixed up. Let me explain.

'Lucy Green MAAT' via Accounts 23 May 2023, 00:40 (3 days ago) to accounts Dear Customer This is a friendly reminder that we haven’t received payment for invoice 875. The payment was due over 30 days ago. We’re not aware of any outstanding issues or reasons for non-payment, so we would like to respectfully ask you to make payment as soon as possible. Please attend to this invoice as soon as possible, as continued delay may result in additional fees and legal action. If you require any assistance with the payment or have any questions about the invoice, please let us know. Thanks Lucy Green Accounts Team Finance Dept, Wilkie Global HQ: +44 (0)1575 572 777 Accounts Payable note: We do 2 BACS payment runs per month. Invoices dated up to and including 15th will be included in the mid-month payment run; invoices dated between the 16th and the end of the month will be included in the month end payment run. ISO 9001 — Quality Management ISO 14001 — Environmental Management Members of ADS Please beware of fraudulent emails, particularly regarding changes of bank account details. Changes to accounts should always be verified by telephone with your Wilkie representative. Emails can appear genuine on first sight but hovering your mouse over an address will show the true origin. If there are any doubts over the validity of an email, then please call us directly.

The sender was: Lucy Green <lucy@contourdigiital.com> and Contour Digital is a legitimate business, but then the business mentioned in the body of the email is Wilkie which is also a legitimate business – the two are not linked.

NB: I have contacted both parties to inform them of the scam.

The phone number in the email is not the official email for either of the businesses, I suspect if I call it I will be connected to an overseas call center who will try and blag me into paying a fake invoice.

If you get an email claiming you owe someone money, if it doesn’t ring a bell, or if the contact info is different, OR if the bank details are different to the details you have used before;

  • PAUSE
  • CALL THE PHONE NUMBER YOU NORMALLY USE
  • AND CONFIRM.

Be scam wise people!

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