PayPal Invoice Scam Targets Victoria & Vancouver Island Companies
Cybercriminals have launched a new scam in which they claim to be from PayPal, and send fraudulent invoices to their targets. Are you sure your staff can spot a fake invoice?
PayPal Invoices Are Costing Victoria & Vancouver Island Businesses Thousands
Key points:
- The PayPal scam is effective because the fake invoices appear legitimate
- Cybercriminals are making thousands because their targets aren’t paying attention
- Do you understand how to identify and stop this scam?
Fake PayPal invoices are being sent to unsuspecting targets at Victoria & Vancouver Island companies, and most of them are paying up without confirming their legitimacy.
Would you pay a fake invoice?
Discover how this works in our latest tech tip video:
How Cybercriminals Are Scamming Victoria & Vancouver Island Companies
The cybercriminal sends the target an invoice that appears to be from PayPal. The way it is formatted and written makes it appear legitimate, detailing an owed dollar amount. The sender requires immediate payment, and unfortunately, a lot of targets send the money without giving it a second thought.
This is a type of Business Email Compromise (BEC), which is a social engineering technique used by cybercriminals in which they pose as a business or member of a business in order to execute fraudulent payments.
A BEC scam works like this: A cybercriminal will write an email pretending to be from a known contact or organization (e.g. PayPal), and request that a payment be processed—instead of sending the funds to a legitimate source, the payment will go to them.
BEC scams account for at least $5.3 billion in losses across 24,000 companies over the past three years. Even worse, there has been an 18% increase in BEC attacks over the past two years.
Why Does This Scam Work On Victoria & Vancouver Island Organizations?
The key to this scam is that it’s relatively low impact. The cybercriminal isn’t asking for tens of thousands of dollars; they’re asking for small amounts that can be easily overlooked by accounting departments and managers at Victoria & Vancouver Island companies.
While you may not notice a few hundred dollars paid out here or there, the cybercriminal running the scam stands to make hundreds of thousands of dollars as they target numerous businesses across Victoria & Vancouver Island.
In fact, no other IT companies in Victoria & Vancouver Island are paying attention to this scam. If you want to learn to spot these scams and avoid paying out to cybercriminals, Daxtech IT Solutions can help…
Daxtech IT Solutions Will Train Your Team To Spot BEC Scams
Even the most effective digital security measures can be negated by simple human error.
So much of cybersecurity is dependent on the user and what they know—that’s why it’s vital that you properly educate your employees in safe conduct. The more your workforce knows about the security measures you have in place, the more confidently they can use the technology in a secure manner.
We’ll help you show your staff how to use business technology in a way that doesn’t put your business at risk.
We offer a comprehensive employee Cyber Awareness Training program that combines regular online training, simulated phishing attacks, and dark web monitoring. The three components of this curriculum include:
- Phishing Training and Testing: Ensure your users know how to identify a dangerous email.
- Security Awareness Training: Give your users the knowledge they need to contribute to organization-wide cybersecurity.
- Policies and Procedures: Implement proven best practices for maintaining robust cybersecurity across your staff.
With our help, your staff will contribute to your cybersecurity, not compromise it.
Don’t Let Your Victoria & Vancouver Island Business Be An Easy Target
The bottom line is that everyone in your Victoria & Vancouver Island organization, top to bottom, is a potential target. Make sure everyone is following cyber security best practices and is protected.
If you need expert assistance defending against cybercriminals and training your staff to recognize social engineering scams, get in touch with Daxtech IT Solutions.
