In today's blog, we will be discussing email scams, how to recognise them, how to avoid being scammed and the impact on your company if you become a victim of the scam.

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In today's world email scamming is a big threat in everyday life. Scammers learn what works and they build on their attacks. The two main scams we see through email are Business email compromise (BEC) and phishing.

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BEC is when the scammer pretends to be someone from your company to try to get money transferred to them. This can be very believable at first, as the sender can have your colleague’s name and picture attached. If you receive an email claiming to be someone from your office you should immediately check the email address and compare it to their actual work email. Usually, these types of emails will include a sense of urgency to send funds as soon as possible, this is a tactic to put you under pressure so you don’t think to assess the validity of the email.

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This can result in company funds being used to pay fraudulent suppliers or to purchase gift cards for employees, however, these will inevitably end up in the hands of the scammers.

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Phishing is a scam that will trick you into clicking a link. There are many ways they can entice you, this could be by advising you have won a prize, warning you your password has expired, cautioning you that if you don’t click a link there will be a charge on an account or even informing you that there has been suspicious activity on your account. You should never click on links unless you can verify the sender. These links will often result in the installation of viruses or spyware that can compromise your sensitive data and this can have a huge impact on the company.

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If you click on the link you should immediately disconnect from the internet. You should contact the head of IT and advise them what happened they will scan the device for any spyware or virus. You should then back up all your files as some viruses can totally destroy all your files or be used as a ransom. The final step is to update all your passwords.

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Email scams can have a detrimental effect on companies potentially causing them to lose billions. Falling victim can also negatively affect the public’s perception, they may feel like their data has also been compromised negatively affecting the company’s reputation and success. It is essential that training and constant reminders about email scams are carried out

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Reach out to our team of experts for more information at info@cooneycarey.ie.