Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2016/08/07/researchers-learn-about-wire-f.html
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Protip: If an invoice comes in the email, check the sender carefully.
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$3m year / 30 people = $100k each per year - expenses (any ideas on how much this might be?)
I see the hand of the market swooping in with far more competition, the return is just to good!
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How do we know this article isn’t yet another phishing attempt?
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It is. That’s why I subscribe to BoingBoingPrime, which filters these out.
It’s actually a really cool service. I have an extra upgrade code, but I don’t want to post it here, obviously. If you send me your password, I’ll log in as you and upgrade your account for free.
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hunter2
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They have money; of course they’re respected.
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A case of Schaden-fraud?
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“The scammers appear to be “family men” in their late 20s to 40s who are well-respected, church-going figures in their communities.”
They’re Republicans…
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And Nigerians are watching the US presidential race and thinking “sure he’s a grifter but he isn’t even a respectable family man nor a churchgoer”.
Just as Nigeria as a whole is a victim of these scammers - the country is now synonymous with fraud in the west - the US suffers abroad from the mere entry of the Oompa Loompa into politics.
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I think actually both the UK and the US have images which are suffering abroad due to a host of dysfunctional politicians; Trump is currently the most visible.
But my point was a serious one and not point scoring; apparently respectable successful businessmen with families who go to church are just about the Republican target image. But some of them are probably engaged in scams just as bad as these ones.
The accountant we used to use in NY left one of the Big Four because he was so tired of having to work with clearly fraudulent businesses. But he was a Reform Jewish democrat.
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Why don’t you just log into my IP address, 127.0.0.1, and do it directly?
Back in the days of fax machines, two criminals rented an office in Birmingham, bought a fax machine and opened a bank account. They then started sending out fake invoices for nonexistent advertising, to medium sized companies for small amounts (around £60-80). The idea was that such small invoices don’t normally get passed further up the A/P line for checking.
It’s estimated they got away with over £250 000 before Trading Standards called the police. When the police arrived they had gone, the bank account was empty, and the fax machine hadn’t yet been paid for.
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I remember a story of a guy who actually printed a small newsletter that was just ads, and sent invoices to the companies for which he printed the ads, for about the maximum amount he could bill them for without it being sent up for further review.
They found him out and charged him, and eventually he was found guilty… of not having a large enough circulation to provide each person he was advertising for with a copy of the publication. The fine was something on the order of a few thousand dollars (a drop in the bucket of what he’d taken in).
They told him they’d fix the loopholes in the law that allowed him to do that, and he basically shrugged and said, “I’ll just find loopholes in another law, then.”
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It looks like you accidentally enabled two-factor authentication. It says I need your mother’s maiden name to continue.
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Here’s the exciting true story of the day people running that scam called my workplace.
ring ring
“Hello, Mrs. Boss’s office, Mr. Semiotix speaking.”
“Hi, we’re calling to arrange payment on that ad you guys took out in our, ahem, ‘yearbook.’”
“Yeah, we didn’t do that.”
“Oh yes you did.”
“Oh no we didn’t.”
“Oh yes you did, and I can prove it. Let’s go to the already-cued-up audiotape!”
“Mrs. Boss speaking.”
“Hello, would you like to place an ad in our yearbook?”
“<click>Yes. Certainly. <click>…I agree.”
“Great!”
“<click>Exceptional. <click>…I concur.”
“Yeah, so, you can’t honestly expect me to be fooled by an edited tape rec–”
“BLAH BLAH ETHNIC SLUR LISTEN YOU MOTHERLOVING PIXIE-DIPPER SO HELP ME I’LL COME OVER THERE AND FEED YOU YOUR OWN ENTRAILS”
“Okay, transferring you to Mrs. Boss. Have a pleasant day.”
And then I watched in mute horror as Mrs. Boss calmly nodded along to a conversation she’d never had and read the numbers off the office credit card. You win this round, scammers!
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Ah, it seems that the problem is with your PC. Fortunately I am from Microsoft, and all you need to do is point your browser at this website: reallymicrosoft.andnot.ascam.com
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Wait a minute… ascam.com? Why would the American Society of Crooks And Malefactors be running tech support for Microsoft?! No, no, something isn’t right here at all!
I’d better use the debit card that’s almost overdrawn, just to be safe.
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