Had a brutal week of phishing attempts at work... all from one fake vendor email

Last Wednesday, three people in accounting nearly approved a $4,200 wire transfer because the fake invoice looked exactly like our regular printer supply company's format. Anyone else get targeted by the same scam running through different departments?

2 comments

2 Comments

cole_mitchell811d ago

and actually that $4,200 number might be off. Most of these fake vendor scams target amounts under $10k specifically because that's below the threshold where most companies require a second sign off. It's a deliberate trick to fly under the radar. So your accounting team almost falling for it is exactly how this scam works, not just a random coincidence. The real printer supply company probably has their templates posted somewhere easy to copy, which is why you're seeing the same email hit different departments.

skyler_craig11d ago

Wait, does that mean my accounting team almost fell for a scam that was literally designed to not look suspicious enough to catch? That's almost worse - like getting pickpocketed by a thief who barely tried. I always imagined these scammers coming up with some elaborate scheme, but apparently they're just copy-pasting templates from the actual printer supply company's website and hoping nobody double-checks. Guess I should feel better knowing we at least proved the scam works as intended, even if we almost fell for it like a bunch of amateurs.