Alaskans are experiencing a large number of fraud attempts as criminals continue to target consumers and businesses using enhanced tactics.
The recent fraud schemes involve fake caller ID, unexpected text messages, and the hijacking of real email threads from compromised email accounts. Impersonating someone you know or trust, such as an employee, customer, vendor or government agency, the fraudster requests changes to existing payment methods or provides falsified invoices with new deposit account details.
Characteristics of these schemes may include:
- Targeted emails or calls from a trusted sender
- Replies on existing email threads
- New payment methods
- Change requests to payment accounts
- An element of urgency or secrecy
How to avoid falling victim to these scams:
- Do not trust caller ID or the sending email address.
- Independently verify the requestor’s identity.
- Always authenticate requests and confirm new payment instructions via a different communication method, such as a known phone number.
- Do not attempt to verify the emailed instructions by calling a phone number provided in the email or replying to the email. The fraudster will continue pretending to be the person or company you know.
- Secure external access to employee email with multi-factor authentication.
Always follow established procedures to reduce the risk of loss.