Club urges caution after being scammed out of thousands of dollars
Bowls clubs are being warned to be vigilant when paying large amounts of money for bills after a club was scammed out of more than $20,000 earlier this year.
The club, which wishes to remain anonymous, contracted to make capital upgrades at their venue, with the issue coming when the club was finalising its last payment of slightly more than $20,000 to the contractor.
“It was the final instalment of a four part payment. Before finalising the final payment, our bookkeeper received an email saying to send the money into a different account from the three previous times,” the club’s President said.
“Within a few days we had figured out the email account had been hacked. The invoice that was sent looked the same as the others, just the bank details were changed.”
Known as a Business Email Compromise, the scam works with a hacker infiltrating the club’s email account, searching out an invoice then masquerading as the legitimate business from which the original invoice came.
The email includes a request to pay the invoice amount into the alternate bank account due to some issue with the original account. Once the invoice is paid, that money is gone and the original invoice remains unpaid.
The club President said it was only when they spoke to the builder who had not received the money that they knew something was wrong.
“As soon as we found out we went to the police and our bank. It has been referred to the Australian Cyber Securities Centre, but we aren’t sure what will happen from here.”
The club has not been able to be reimbursed from its bank to date, and is still holding onto hope they can cover some of the damage. Contact was also made to the club’s insurer and although the club had cyber risk endorsement as part of standard cover, they were advised they were not covered for the types of scams or falsification of invoices, such as what occurred.
The President said this unfortunate incident should serve as a warning to other clubs to “be aware and alert”.
“If something seems off, it is best to double check, especially when dealing with large amounts of money,” he said.
“Scammers are clever these days so as clubs we have to ensure we have measures in place that it doesn’t happen again.
“We have put in place some best practice guidelines and taken a look at the ACCC scams guide, which I would recommend to other clubs.”
It is important for clubs, when paying invoices of a considerable amount, to should first contact the provider of the invoice and verify the bank details to ensure future similar situations are avoided.
