CEO fraud is a fraudulent method of getting you to make a payment. The fraudster targets several firms on the internet and finds out who their manager or accountant is, or the person in charge of paying their invoices (all this information can often easily be found on the internet).
Pretending to be a manager, the fraudster then sends an email to the accountant along the lines of: “I just made an order at company XYZ and need to send them the money today. Is it possible to send it immediately?” Most often the accountant responds that it is possible, to which the fraudster replies with the details of who to send the payment to, i.e.: account number, amount, variable code, message for recipient etc. The accountant then makes the transfer.
Our recommendations:
- Call the person who allegedly sent the email requesting payment details. This way you will find out whether they indeed sent the email.
- Insist on an invoice.
- Using the Company ID Number, verify the company through www.justice.cz orwwwinfo.mfcr.cz/ares/ in the ‘economic entities’ section.
- If you do not manage to obtain an invoice, you can search for the name of the company via your internet search engine or the above websites.
- Search for the account number online. Most companies list their identification number on their website.
- The most secure approach is to agree on certain rules in your company that do not permit such invoice payment requests to be processed.