Email Fraud Investigation
Email fraud investigation is the collection and forensic investigation of evidence into email hacking, phishing attacks, tracing and recovery of stolen funds. Email Fraud is the intentional deception made for personal gain or to damage another individual through email. Almost as soon as email became widely used, it began to be used as a means to defraud people. Email fraud can take the form of a "con game" or scam. Investigating email fraud reaches to all aspect of cyber crime from recovery of funds transferred to a fraudsters bank account to a forensic examination to determine how fraudsters hacked into email accounts. Digitpol's Email Fraud Investigation Team are certified digital forensic experts and fraud examiners and can assist to all cases related to Email Scams and Fraud.
Email fraud, scams, phishing attacks happens in most cases when cyber criminals find ways to hack into the email servers or accounts of small and medium companies, often targeting those with business in Asia countries. Cyber criminals gain access to email accounts and search through email accounts looking for sensitive information such as outstanding, unpaid invoices or data relating to financial transactions and business between supplier, vendor and clients.
When cyber criminals identify a sale or a due invoice, the fraudsters then send various fictitious emails from the hacked email account or an email address replicated to the original purporting to be in charge of the sale or due invoice to be paid, the fraudster is then asking for transfers of funds into a nominated bank account, usually giving an excuse that there is a problem at the bank and an alternative account needs to be used. It is common that the nominated account is in the same name as the company name or with a very slight change such as an extra letter. It is common the bank account to be in the same city as the victim or client. Another form of email fraud is the sale of products which are never received, often the communications were carried out by email, in these cases, the evidence is the email threads.
How Email Fraud Works:
Cyber criminals find ways to hack into the email servers or accounts of small and medium companies, often targeting companies or investors conducting business with Asia countries. Cyber criminals gain access to email accounts and search through email accounts looking for sensitive information such as outstanding, unpaid invoices or data relating to financial transactions and business between supplier, vendor and clients. When cyber criminals identify a sale or a due invoice, the fraudsters then send various fictitious emails from the hacked email account or an email address replicated to the original posing to be in charge of the sale or due invoice to be paid, the fraudster is then asking for transfers of funds into a nominated bank account, usually giving an excuse that there is a problem at the bank and an alternative account needs to be used.
What Victims Need To
If you have transferred funds to a bank account in error, the following is urgent.
- Report the incident as soon as possible to your local police in the country you reside in. Obtain the Police report or case number.
- Immediately alert your bank the transaction is fraudulent.
- Report the case to the Police in the location of the transferred bank account or engage Digitpol and its legal team to act for you by reporting the complaint to the Police and conducting an Investigation by liaising with the Police and the banks.
- If you have not transferred funds or have not been requested to transfer funds, alerts your payments department to put all payments on hold pending approval and start the incident response protocol.
How We Can Help
Digitpol's Cyber and Fraud Team are certified fraud and forensic examiners and can deploy to assist with all cases related to email fraud, email spear phishing attacks, email scams and on-line related fraud. Digitpol can deploy forensic examiners to investigate hacking, determine how it took place and report the findings, Digitpol ensures that hackers are not active in your network and ensure your user accounts policies and rules are configured correctly to prevent further attacks.
Digitpol's Business Email Compromise Investigation Team liaise with banks, police and exchanges, we present forensic evidence directly to banks requesting seizure or to hold and transferred funds.
