The FBI in its latest warning to the US companies notifies about a new business email compromise campaign – aimed at vendors selling goods on credit lines.
Scammers are impersonating legitimate businesses through spoofed emails, and been ordering goods from various vendors, says the FBI. Asking them to be vigilant, the FBI recommends the vendors look at and verify the emails before fulfilling the orders.
Impersonating For Fake Purchases
The Federal Bureau of Investigation has come up with a new warning notification to all US-based product vendors – informing them about a new Business Email Compromise (BEC) campaign targeted against them.
As per its notice, the new-age scammers are tactically impersonating the emails of certain companies in the US, and have been placing product orders with fake credentials. While spoofing an email is easy, these scammers are professionally crafting the orders to seem legitimate and succeed.
FBI says the goods generally targeted in this fraud are construction materials, agricultural supplies, computer technology hardware, and solar energy products. To make the orders seem true, the scammers here are even mentioning fake credit (Net-30, Net-60 terms, and W-9) forms, that include income information and terms.
Any unsuspicious vendor believing them to be true would proceed to fulfill the order! And in most cases, this would happen on a credit basis – with a span ranging from 30-60 days. This allows the scammers to place even more orders, and exploit the fulfilled orders.
Thus, the FBI recommends vendors verify the source of an incoming email before proceeding to fulfill the order. They can find legitimate information from the touted businesses through their company’s website, social media, or online databases, and should directly inquire about the purchase intent.
