The Holmes Beach Police Department is warning local businesses and employees about a phishing scam in which cybercriminals impersonate company executives and vendors to trick organizations into making fraudulent payments.
The scam begins with an email appearing to come from a company CEO or another executive requesting immediate payment of an invoice. The message may include a fraudulent annual subscription invoice, bank transfer instructions and a fabricated email conversation between the executive and a vendor.
The realistic appearance of the documents and email history is designed to convince employees that the payment has already been approved. However, both the invoice and the correspondence are fake, and any money transferred goes directly to a bank account controlled by criminals.
Police advise employees to independently verify payment requests by contacting the sender by telephone or in person, using previously established contact information rather than details provided in the suspicious email.
Businesses should also follow their established payment approval procedures for every invoice, regardless of who appears to have authorized the transaction. Unexpected requests involving large payments should be reported through the organization’s internal procedures.
The department emphasizes that even convincing emails appearing to come from trusted executives or vendors should be verified before funds are transferred.
