Provincial Police in northwestern Ontario have issued a warning of two new scams.
OPP say as part of the so-called “Business Executive” scam, businesses in the Rainy River District are being targeted by a fraudster who is posing as an executive or supervisor of a company with authority to request money transfers or vendor payments.
The person creates an email that mimics that of a Chief Executive Officer or Chief Financial Officer, while at times even gaining access to an actual CEO or CFO email account.
The spoofed email is sent to an employee authorized to conduct electronic transfers, indicating the business account is currently under a routine audit and provides a new account number.
The scammer then provides a name and a bank account where the funds are to be sent.
OPP are reporting losses in excess of $400,000.
In the “Card Not Present” scam, Provincial Police say the fraudster is targeting businesses that have existing relationships and accounts with suppliers, wholesalers or contractors.
They claim to represent an existing supplier or contractor and send a spoofed email informing the buyer of a change in payment arrangements.
The email provides ‘new’ banking details and requests future payments be made to this ‘new’ account, redirecting money to the scammer.
Local businesses are urged to verify any sudden changes of accounts directly with the vendor.
In a statement police say “Pay attention to small details in emails including spelling, grammar, punctuation and clerical errors. Be alerted to unexpected changes and do not solely rely on email transactions to verify information. In recent scams, the fraudsters used documentation including letterhead and email addresses similar to the legitimate address. However, upon closer inspection, scammer had added one letter in the email address.”
If you believe you have fallen victim to one of these two scams contact the Ontario Provincial Police at 1-888-310-1122 or the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre at 1-888-495-8501.
For more information on other scams you should be aware of visit https://www.antifraudcentre-centreantifraude.ca/index-eng.htm or https://www.competitionbureau.gc.ca/eic/site/cb-bc.nsf/eng/04341.html
