Cupar man’s warning after being scammed out of £2,500
Cupar man Jim Harrow, who deals in tractor parts and relies on his computer for his business, first became aware of a problem when one of his customers called to ask why he wasn’t answering email queries.
It emerged his email account had been hacked from locations including South Africa and Nigeria.
The culprits intercepted an emailed invoice for £4,200 sent to his client and asking the money be paid to a different account.
Mr Harrow changed his passwords but the issues continued as he was cheated out of more than £2,000 when those behind the scam mocked-up an invoice from another of his clients.
He had bought parts from the customer who asked for speedy payment, prompting him to transfer more than £2,000 from his bank account.
The client contacted him a few weeks later asking why his payment was unusually absent.
“I couldn’t eat that night,” Mr Harrow admitted. “It was just absolutely rotten.
“You’re thrown into a worry as to how they’ve got your details, how they’ve managed to do it and are they coming back.”
Mr Harrow got his credit extended but had to pay the money in full again, also having to pay tax on the money he lost taking his total loss to around £2,500.
He added he feels like a “soft target” because he is a small business rather than a big company with an IT department.
Mr Harrow’s story will be aired on STV’s Stopping Scotland’s Scammers programme this evening and presenter Jackie Brambles said experiences like Mr Harrow’s are becoming all too frequent.
“I really want to drive home to the viewers at home you can’t rest on your laurels because every time we learn how to protect ourselves from one scam, these cyber-criminals up the ante and create something even more diabolical,” she told The Courier.
“We’re incredibly grateful to Jim and our other contributors, whose courage of conviction to help others was stronger than the sense of humiliation that they were left with after various scammers robbed them of both their money and their dignity.
“We don’t want to scare people but we do want them to tune in and follow the recommendations that our experts share on the show on how to protect themselves from fraudsters.”
Chris Wilson, RBS managing director for branch and private banking, concluded: “Fraudsters are becoming increasingly sophisticated and are able to trick people by sending scam emails that appear to be genuine.
“Tell-tale signs that an email is fraudulent include greetings which are unusual, emails with spelling and grammar mistakes, and if a customer is not expecting to make a payment they should automatically question why you have been asked for one.”