The Hellenic Police's Cybercrime Prosecution Directorate informs companies and businesses based in our country and operating commercially in Greece or abroad, in order to increase their attention to payment procedures carried out through Banking Institutions.
Recently, there has been an increase in fraud cases, regarding the fraudulent routing of payments to third-party bank accounts rather than the beneficiaries.
More specifically, third parties electronically penetrate (CRACKING) the communications/correspondence (e-mail) of commercial companies that they have targeted, resulting in intercepting electronic correspondence, with the aim of identifying commercial transactions.
Then, the malicious actors (CRACKERS), after having stolen commercial transaction data, inform the company, which wants to transfer a sum of money owed to a bank account of a collaborating company, via fraudulent e-mail, that the money should be deposited into a different account than the one that was previously transacted.
The result is that the company to which the money is owed and for which the bank transfer was made, never receives the amount of money.
In order to secure their digital data, as well as protect their banking transactions, commercial companies are required to adhere to the following procedures:
- continuous verification of the correct email address of the companies - businesses with which communication is made for upcoming transactions,
- in case money is required to be sent by any means, verification of the sending details should be carried out by any other means, other than email (telephone, online chat, etc.),
- verification of transactions directly with the banking institutions to which the money is to be transferred,
- maintaining a second or additional security code when managing email accounts that receive and send sensitive or banking data,
- continuous updating of information systems protection and security programs.
