False billing the top con job.

 

Email scams cost businesses more than $132 million last year, the highest amount for any of the growing number of online scam types.

 

According to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, false billing was the most commonly reported type of business scam in 2019.

 

These scams affect businesses, suppliers and individuals by tricking people into paying invoices to scammers’ bank accounts instead of the legitimate account. 

 

Scammers often intercept legitimate invoices and change the details to include fraudulent payment information.

 

False billing scams generally request businesses to pay fake invoices for directory listings, advertising, domain name renewals or office supplies that they did not order.

 

Another technique used by scammers is to impersonate the CEO of a company and request staff transfer funds to them for a variety of reasons, such as to purchase gift cards as a surprise for other staff.

 

And, with the pandemic disrupting many businesses, scammers have also been found to create fake online stores claiming to sell products that don't exist - such as cures or vaccinations for COVID-19, and products such as face masks.

 

Bogus Officework website

 

Last year, Officeworks became aware of another email scam impersonating ‘The Officeworks Team’. 

 

The email scam attempted to lure customers to a fraudulent website via a linked invoice number. These emails were sent from various email addresses, neither of which came from Officeworks. The links lead to a virus download.