Help & support
Email payment scams involve scammers using technology to impersonate a party in the transaction, or directly compromising the business email accounts.
There are a number of techniques scammers use to trick staff into divulging either your business’ information or money.
Defending against cyber criminals looking to hack your systems is important. But what’s also key is defending your business against attempts to hack your people.
The reality is that tricking someone into clicking a link that downloads malicious software, or simply transferring money somewhere they shouldn’t, is often cheap and easy. That’s why it’s vital to educate your staff on what common scams look like so they can recognise them, report them and help safeguard your business from potentially costly mistakes.
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These scams target businesses of all sizes. Using emails made to look like they are from someone you know, such as your boss, your supplier or your customer, these scams will request payment be made to an account under the scammer’s control. There are two main examples of these kinds of scams staff need to be able to recognise.
It’s vital your staff are wary of these kinds of scams as they rely on people within the business being tricked into transferring money outside of the business to accounts they have never transferred to before. Because it is a staff member performing a legitimate action, however, these kinds of incidents may not be covered by any cyber insurance or guarantees you have in place.
Prevention is the best outcome in these scenarios. Here’s what we recommend:
One BEC variation that has recently become prevalent is “payroll scams”. In these kinds of scams, cyber criminals impersonate employees in an attempt to trick staff into redirecting funds to the scammer. Staff working in HR, payroll or finance are most at risk. The emails they receive might look official too, or even appear to come from a legitimate employee email address. They might ask for an urgent update of bank account details to a scammer account instead.
In other cases, the first email will seem harmless, simply asking what the process for updating payment details is. The idea is to later make contact with a more targeted follow-up.
Educating staff on how to spot these fraudulent emails will mean your business isn’t compromised and money isn’t lost. Here’s how to keep your employees safe from potential payroll scams, as recommended by the Australian Cyber Security Centre.
If you haven't engaged with its contents, such as clicking a link or replying to it, report it to CommBank's 24/7 Cyber Security Centre by forwarding it to hoax@cba.com.au, then delete the message.
If you're worried or you’ve noticed a suspicious transaction: