Good Afternoon,
As we navigate through the changes this pandemic has brought upon us, we are working vigilantly to ensure our clients financial safety and stability are at the forefront of our attention.
We have been made aware of multiple clients who have been victims of fraud or attempted fraud under the mask of public safety. Many vendors are legitimately asking clients to transfer their payment processing to ACH for quicker and more contactless handling. However, scammers have caught on to this trend and are quickly taking advantage of people.
How do you protect yourself and your company from falling into this trap?
There are key details you need to pay close attention to. The initial contact from the fraudulent party will generally be either through email or by phone. If by email, there may be minor details to look out for. This could be as minute as one letter difference in the email address or a small detail is different in the company logo. If by phone, they may ask you to verify your account number or other personal information prior to continuing the conversation. A representative contacting you should never need verification of your details.
An easy way to avoid any mishaps is to contact your vendor representative directly to confirm whether or not the request is valid. If you are contacted by someone you are unfamiliar with, it is neither rude nor unprofessional to indicate you prefer to hang up and reach out to your representative directly. If you are sent an email, we advise doing the same. Scammers are able to forge email addresses exactly so do not reply to the email or open any links you were sent; rather, start a new email or call your representative directly.
If you do not have a regular representative, it is still advised to end the initial conversation and call the company back directly with the number you have from previous billings/statements. If the request is valid there will be no issue in you doing this.
While times are certainly progressing towards maximum efficiency for all parties, we have to remain attentive to the details when it comes to our finances. If you have any questions about legitimate routing and/or account numbers, please reach out to your bank prior to transferring any funds or authorizing ACH.
As always, we are here to help and advise in any way possible.
