Wife sent one of our developer clients a final bill for a commercial subdivision we did last summer. The bill was sent via email with the expectation our client will mail the bill like normal. Sometimes the client will leave the check at his office desk for us to pick up if we need it but this was a normal bill and mail situation. Wed wife emails the bill and client responds they received the bill and will put a check in the mail. Friday wife gets 3 phone calls in a row from XYZ bank wanting to know our ACH routing information so they can deposit some money. Wife hangs up all 3 times suspecting scammers. Turns out the calls were legit and from our clients bank. Client then calls wife and says per her emails (plural) he was trying to direct deposit the amount of our bill into our account. Upon discussion this is what happened. Apparently someone hacked his email, spoofed an identical email complete with our logo and contact info then proceeded engage in an email train telling him how we've changed our AR and now prefer direct deposit. Client calls wife after she hung up on his bank 3 times and thats where the scam unravelled. The imposters email was so well spoofed the only way to see it was fake was in the email address. Our company email domain ends in llc.com. The imposters email only had one L, -lc.com. Stay on point ladies and gents as there is always a scam and a scammer willing to steal your hard earned money. This comes on the heels of a friend of mine that had one of his checks to his flooring subcontractor get intercepted, "washed" and cashed in another persons name. I hate thieves - they should be shot on site.
A similar situation happened to me earlier this year. Prime contractor called me to verify I wanted to change to direct deposit per a spoofed email. We caught this quickly but it was legit looking and well scripted. Needless to say we only pick up checks in person now, sometimes inconvenient, but not as inconvenient as lost money
Not a bad idea - picking checks up in person. Only problem for us is we do some work for out of state GC's. The farthest away was one in Minnesota this year. However we had those checks Fed'xd on our account as we didn't trust the mail.
Yet there's this big push to do everything online these days. As time goes on I find myself wanting to return to the old ways. Kinda hard for scammers to intercept when you mail the client a bill and they mail you back a cheque.
We ran into a situation related to this recently. We emailed an invoice to an out-of-state client recently, and then received emails from an out-of-state financial institution wanting ACH info to deposit funds in our account. As it turns out it was legit, but we asked the client just to send a check. The check we received was from a financial institution and not directly from the client, which increasingly is becoming the norm amongst our higher profile clients.
The problem with mailing a check is the check getting intercepted, washed and cashed in someone else's name. Happened recently to a friend of mine. He's out $6K if the bank doesn't reverse it.
Maybe there is more protection with those billpay checks then? We do receive direct deposit payments from some of the conservation agencies, and work for the Forest Service and BLM requires payments to be processed and paid through the Internet Payment Process (IPP.gov), but I guess my age is showing as I'm reluctant to participate in these things, and haven't had problems with checks....yet.
Seems like the odds of that happening would be slim. The thieves would have to know exactly which envelope they're looking for. Seems like the odds of having a computer or phone hacked unknowingly would be much higher.
One would think but actually it's quite common. In the last 3-4 months I have two friends this has happened to. One is the builder I mentioned above that sent his flooring contractor a check that never made it. Another friend of mine is CFO for a mid-sized food broker. They had several checks totaling around $40K intercepted, washed and cashed. No clue how it happened. Now they have some sort of check protection offered through a service from their bank.
Crazy.
Never heard of the scam until recently but apparently it's quite common. Who knew?
That's good information to be aware of.
Well maybe posting these scams here saves someone from becoming a victim.
So if the client's actual bank was looking for you deposit info, where did the scammers slip in? Were they trying to redirect a deposit or access your bank?
It was the client's bank wanting our information. The scammers wanted the ACH to go to Green Dot Bank which we have no account at. That's where the scam fell apart. I guess it works sometimes? As far as I know they weren't trying to get our banking info just trying to skim this check.
Back in the good old days, scams just used to involve two things. Mod edit - Yep the oldest commodity on the planet but let's keep it somewhat G rated. Thanks
Not sure if that dude understands what "love" means . . .
He was thinking with the wrong head
I know some companies have it set up with their suppliers that only certain employee's can purchase under the companies name even if they pay cash. I wonder if cheques could be similar that only certain people could cash them or they have to have more than one authorized signature in order cash or deposit them? Proof of ID required and a security code maybe? There seems to a new scam every week to steal people's money or items.
scammers don’t have jobs or something to do? apart from stealing smh
These damn scammers are getting clever. Thanks for the tip!