Chamber of Commerce offers workshops to help businesses combat rising fraud

The Chamber of Commerce has in recent weeks been running a series of workshops for members to help them guard against online fraud

The sessions, in collaboration with AF Services, have helped attendees understand the various ways and techniques used by criminals to defraud companies whether it is online or over the phone.

“The spate of telephone-based frauds which hit a number of local companies over the summer showed how persistent and convincing these fraudsters can be,” said a statement from the Chamber.

“News in the last few weeks highlights that fraud attempts are not periodic episodes but are becoming a regular hazard for companies and their employees.”

In the RGP’s media report for incidents over the weekend it was reported that, “a local company owner reported receiving an email from a business contact containing updated bank details for a pending payment.”

“The victim then transferred around £11,000 to the new account. Shortly after, the victim was contacted by the owner of the email account from which the said email originated, claiming the email was fraudulent and that the account may have been compromised.” The RGP stated that enquiries are ongoing.

The Chamber warned that the forthcoming Christmas and New Years period is likely to see organised criminal groups make further attempts to defraud firms as they know that senior management in many companies may be on leave. This can provide an excellent opportunity to pressurise unsuspecting employees to make bogus payments.

The Chamber invites its members to make contact on 200 78376 should they wish their employees to undergo fraud prevention training.