Fraudsters have found yet another way to scam people and businesses out of money, this time using credit cards and bank accounts. It’s a new spin on an old scam that often involves counterfeit checks. And it’s something Greenville, South Carolina, resident Judy Guyton learned the hard way after checking her bank account online, according to WSPA 7 News.
Guyton received a suspicious call from a man offering virus protection software, who promised to pay her $300 to try it out. Guyton refused, and hung up. Later, when Guyton checked her bank account, she saw a $3,000 deposit. The fraudster called her back right on cue and said, “We made a mistake, we put in one zero too many!” Tthe calls increased, and Guyton did what they said, wiring the money to China in the process.
The “combination of a hack and a follow-up scam,” as one sheriff stated, showed that these weren’t your typical scammers. Not only were they savvy enough to get into her bank account, they transferred a large sum of money from a cash advance on Guyton’s credit card to her bank account, which she then sent overseas.
Avoiding the Follow-Up Scam
How can you protect yourself from this scam? Be suspicious of requests for secrecy or pressure to take action quickly. Don’t share your passwords with anyone, and refrain from sending sensitive data by email or text. One of the biggest red flags for any scam is the method of payment. If someone asks you to pay via wire transfer or iTunes: watch out. Those methods are virtually untraceable and it’s likely a scam.
Worried about scammers defrauding your company? AP automation enforces strict adherence to business rules, reducing opportunities to commit B2B fraud. Manual processes rely on post payment review to detect deviations from business rules. By the time you’ve detected an issue or discovered an error, the fraud has already occurred.
Accounts payable automation ensures that your company’s invoice and payment information is secure in a cloud-based environment that can be accessed anywhere at any time. Automated fraud detection is one of your company’s best lines of defense against fraudulent and duplicate requests for payment.
With automation, the key is to create a pattern of permission to where no one person has the ability to:
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