![]() So if you ring the number on your invoice, you get the hacker who will be very happy to tell you the details are correct.”Ībove all, ensure you – and your staff – are knowledgeable and have up-to-date cybersecurity systems. “Sometimes the hacking is so sophisticated they even change the phone number. She says it’s vital you don’t take the phone number from the invoice email itself. “She thought I was mad… but it’s important.” It’s a lot of money, because curtains are expensive – I rang the curtain people and said I want to check. Even in your personal life! I’ve taken this case on board when I had to pay for some curtains. “It’s just a quick phone call to ring up and say: `are these your bank details?’. READ ALSO Some ACT laws will soon be gender neutral: here’s why and what that means So with ultimate responsibility resting on you to pay the correct invoice, what can you do to ensure you don’t lose thousands of dollars in such a trap?Īlisa says businesses can first check whether they’re insured against these losses. But she says courts are reluctant to find a duty of care is owed to prevent loss of money. The tribunal decided that regardless of whose end the hacking occurred – it was the payer’s responsibility to ensure the invoice was accurate and the debt was paid.Īlisa says in a situation where the issuer of the invoice is compromised because they have poor cybersecurity, you can argue it’s negligence on their part. The intended recipient then took action to recover the debt. Alisa says it’s common in situations where the money is not retrievable for both parties to sit down and negotiate.īut last month, one such situation made it all the way to the ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal after a Canberra company paid a scam invoice. ![]() You can call the bank immediately to stop the transfer – but in many cases, it’s simply too late. Unfortunately, what happens next isn’t simple. The sophistication of the hacking is very much increasing.” “It used to be that you’d get hacking emails and it’d be pretty obvious that it’s not real. READ ALSO High Court cases raise bar on employee/independent contractor question She says the scammers are also getting smarter. It’s not unusual – and it’s absolutely increasing.” “People are sometimes losing hundreds of thousands paying an invoice where the invoice has been intercepted and the bank account details have been changed. “I know lots of business owners who’ve had this happen to them,” she says. MV Law’s partner in dispute resolution Alisa Taylor says these types of scams are happening at an alarmingly increasing level. It’s not your average scam email flashing “You’ve won a new iPad and a trip to the Maldives” – you’re fully expecting that invoice! The normal red flags that might be raised by awkward spelling don’t immediately go up. You’ve fallen victim to a sophisticated email scam – where an invoice is intercepted and then replaced with an email mimicking the company’s invoice. ![]() There’s a very good chance it’s gone straight into the accounts of a hacker. The issue? You made the bank transfer a few days ago. You’ve just had a call from a business telling you they’re still waiting for payment. It’s the ultimate hit-in-the-guts moment. Email scams are becoming far more elaborate.
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