Fraud by false transfer order to Poland

A lthough the so called “president’s fraud” or fraud by false transfer order is known for many years now, it has not lost its scope and many companies (ranging from the most prestigious publicly listed companies to local SMEs) still fall prey to scammers. Poland is often used as the first transit point for embezzled funds.

How does the fraud work?

Usually, an individual poses as the top executive of the target company and urges an employee of its accounting or finance department to urgently make an international bank transfer for a highly confidential transaction (for example to, supposedly, acquire shares in market, avoid tax adjustment, etc.).

How is it possible that these requests are met without the scam being noticed?

The crooks prepare for the operation a long time in advance. They study the organization of the target company using information they find on the Internet as well as that published directly by the company. They frequently manage to intercept the signature of the company’s director, as it appears on official documents.

The groundwork can be much more advanced and may involve more than one person. As a matter of fact, fraudsters repeatedly go as far as to introduce an accomplice within the target company to better understand its operation. After these careful preparations, the criminals take action and ask the « chosen » employee by email or phone to make one (or more) bank transfers.

To establish contact with this employee, e-mail mailboxes of the target company managers can be hacked. Thus, fraudster’s messages are sent from the e-mail address of an executive who is allegedly giving the order. However, more often than not, scammers create an e-mail address so close to the original that the recipient may truly believe that it is the genuine address (for instance, one letter is changed in the company’s name).

The fraud is sometimes operated directly by telephone. At first sight, such gimmick seems easier to unmask. However, a well-prepared fraudster knows how to imitate the voice and the way of speaking of the executive he acts as. When you hear the favourite words or phrases of your boss, it is just as easy to be fooled.

False transfer scams may vary from one another. These are some of the most frequent variations:

• individuals pretend to be suppliers (or contractors) and communicate a change of bank account on which the target company should make its payments from now on,
• « technicians » have just updated the bank’s software and request from the target company a « test transfer » on a dedicated bank account,
• the target company’s executive carries out a completely confidential acquisition, secret even within the company, which is why he asks a chosen person (most frequently from the accounting department) not to reveal the transaction to anyone else…

The final destination of these transfers is often a remote country, but the first transfer is, in order not to arouse suspicion, frequently made to a country of the European Union. For example to Poland.