Polish embassy warns against increased number of phishing attempts

The Investment and Trade Promotion Division of the Polish Embassy in New Delhi issued a formal appeal to Polish entrepreneurs in India, warning them against wire transfer phishing, the Polish media reported August 20.

”We renew our appeal to be cautious and to provide information concerning attempts of phishing of money,” the embassy’s appeal read.

The appeal came in a response to numerous reports of phishing attempts that have caused great financial losses to Polish businesses operating in India.

As it was later discovered, the typical scenario included a fraudster, who hacked into a company employee mailbox, thus gaining access to information relating to the company’s business transactions and pending payments. The fraudster then used the stolen information to defraud a victim of money.

The embassy is not the only state institution that has recently received reports of phishing. The Polish Ministry of Economy told the Polish media about a case that was reported to the ministry, which involved a fraudster who impersonated a business partner by using a slightly changed e-mail address.

“The domain of the false e-mail address was slightly different from the original one,” the ministry stated. “The fraudster used the domain named ‘sirnplexexport.com’, while the correct one was called ‘simplexexport.com’”.

The fraudster, who impersonated the business partner provided the victimized company with a different bank account, and requested a transfer to that account. The fraudster said the same to the Indian supplier, while also impersonating its Polish business partner. When the two companies discovered the scam, it was too late to recover the money.

Photo courtesy of Stomchak.