Covid-19 - Vigilance Warning
Sadly, the current health crisis is an opportune time for fraudulent activity. This includes social engineering fraud (bank account fraud, CEO fraud and technical support fraud), document fraud (falsified invoices) as well as phishing.
All companies are impacted by the exponential growth in fraud, but hospitals, nursing homes, labs and medical equipment suppliers are particularly targeted. Cf. Communications from DGSI (direction générale de la sécurité intérieure) and DCPJ (direction centrale de la police judiciaire)
In these uncertain times, we’ve seen an accelerated rollout of remote working. As a result, most employees are homebound and often need to balance their personal – including home schooling duties required of some staff – and professional lives. Such circumstances may cause a loss of concentration and instincts in job-related tasks, which is potentially exacerbated by feeling isolated from team members.
Fraudsters have also stepped up the number of phishing operations and cyberattacks, either through infiltrating a company’s IT system or targeted employees’ email accounts. In particular, it involves a company’s accounting/treasury/finance department in an attempt to initiate unauthorized payments with fully accurate information of ongoing transactions.
How do I detect phishing?
- Always check the sender’s email and its consistency with the content of the message.
- Never open an attachment and don’t click on links in your emails unless you’re sure you know the sender. The same applies when you receive a suspicious email from one of your regular contacts.
Learn how to recognize a fraudulent link: by hovering your mouse over the link (without clicking), you can check the linked website address.
Please be extra vigilant in managing your transactions, particularly if bank details have changed. Verify the validity of a request from your regular contacts using their basic contact information.
To develop good practice, follow the e-learning awareness courses, on CEO fraud and fraudulent change on bank account details by clicking on the links available below.
If you’re a victim of fraud, please contact your Natixis sales manager immediately and file a complaint ASAP.
