Non-profit job creator suffers R600,000 cyber attack

Bradley Prior

Bradley Prior

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Non-profit job creator suffers R600,000 cyber attack
The Big Issue may have to close early next year if enough money doesn’t come in to cover the R600,000 lost in a cyber scam.
the-big-issue-might-close-down-after-r600000-bank-scam
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This is a failure of there accounts department, surly before paying R200k you call the printers via reception main number and not the cell number in the mail.
Asking if the change of account is correct?
If it went on for three months did you not See it in the monthly statement, if you running an account you should be getting a statement after every payment and ask for a monthly?
On the printer side did they not see that they suddenly weren’t paying for 1, 2, 3 months?

I sympathies with them but do feel there is bad management and lack of common sense, this isn’t a new scam.
 
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Why do the banks not just bounce the funds back out of those accounts and suspend them?

Also I would insist on the id phone number and address of the account holder I paid money.

As a minimum declare upfront when you make a payment whether its business or individual. And if its business then state the name of the business.

The banks really do squat to mitigate the risks of banking.
 
DStvNothingOn said:
This is a failure of there accounts department, surly before paying R200k you can the printers via reception main number and not the cell number in the mail.
Asking if the change of account is correct?
If it went on for three months did you not See it in the monthly statement, if you running an account you should be getting a statement after every payment and ask for a monthly?
On the printer side did they not see that they suddenly weren’t paying for 1, 2, 3 months?

I sympathies with them but do feel there is bad management and lack of common sense, this isn’t a new scam.
Click to expand...
True, the phone call should have been made to the known number on the web site. However, most payment clerks are too lazy to do that.
 
r00igev@@r said:
The banks really do squat to mitigate the risks of banking.
Click to expand...
The thing is, how much SHOULD they do?

I posted the below on Carbonite when I was admin:

How many MORE measures do you want in place to prevent idiots from being idiots (no offense to anyone)? There's iTrader, there are rules which mention being cautious (which everyone has been forced to read), there are hundreds of Bad Deals threads to give people a wake up call. There has even been a case of someone getting scammed after being told multiple times in the thread to walk away from the deal as it stinks of a scam. We can take the horse to the water, we can break its legs at the riverbank, we can shove its head under the water but we cannot make it drink. People need to look out for themselves, we can't baby you through life.
 
r00igev@@r said:
Why do the banks not just bounce the funds back out of those accounts and suspend them?
Click to expand...
I had client fall for the same scam, email coming from a gmail account saying new bank account. Was new absa account and absa froze the funds, it was over a Bar so maybe there is a limit.

We still think it was an inside job/ compromised email accounts on the client side, the email had too much info, client said we were compromised, we checked our logs no indication of strange log ins on the email sever, we asked them to do the same, suddenly went quite on the matter and have never brought it up again.
 
r00igev@@r said:
True, the phone call should have been made to the known number on the web site. However, most payment clerks are too lazy to do that.
Click to expand...
I know of at least one sophisticated version where they intercepted such a check. But I agree, people are lazy. Banks do have functionality to verify accounts names match account numbers etc but it's not used by many.
 
DStvNothingOn said:
This is a failure of there accounts department, surly before paying R200k you call the printers via reception main number and not the cell number in the mail.
Asking if the change of account is correct?
If it went on for three months did you not See it in the monthly statement, if you running an account you should be getting a statement after every payment and ask for a monthly?
On the printer side did they not see that they suddenly weren’t paying for 1, 2, 3 months?

I sympathies with them but do feel there is bad management and lack of common sense, this isn’t a new scam.
Click to expand...
Yea, I see this too often where the people making and approving payments are negligent in their duties. I would even go as far as to say gross negligence.

It only takes one phone call, or one call to confirm bank verification letter to it all the be avoided.

I hope big issue survives this.
 
Mistakes were made. The bank verification letter is not a guarantee itself but it can be used to call the bank and verify. That was not done. Banks need to educate more and have fraud hotlines that are manned by sufficient staff to not have clients waiting 10 mins for a consultant
 
Sapphiron said:
Yea, I see this too often where the people making and approving payments are negligent in their duties. I would even go as far as to say gross negligence.

It only takes one phone call, or one call to confirm bank verification letter to it all the be avoided.

I hope big issue survives this.
Click to expand...
The issue is the letter is treated as a guarantee itself. Education in banking is lacking.
 
Sapphiron said:
Yea, I see this too often where the people making and approving payments are negligent in their duties. I would even go as far as to say gross negligence.

It only takes one phone call, or one call to confirm bank verification letter to it all the be avoided.

I hope big issue survives this.
Click to expand...
Yep. Inside job very possible.
 
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