UK P&I Club issued a reminder regarding the cyber fraud threat. Although, the Club has published two bulletins in the past addressing this issue, it notes that cyber fraud incidents are still occurring.
The UK Club urges operators to ensure that their payments/accounts departments are reminded of the need to exercise caution, to be vigilant and to double check any changes to existing payment instructions.
“Possibly the easiest way to do this is to call your suppliers and confirm with them, on the phone, that there is in fact a change to their payment instructions,” the Club informs.
Extra caution must be given during the holiday periods, because staff are often covering for colleagues who may be on leave is particularly important.
In the first bulletin published, Signum Services have dealt with several cases of ‘invoice’ fraud recently and asked that members are extra vigilant, especially at this time of year.
In the second bulletin, published last year the Club said that these types of crime continue to cause problems and it is worthwhile reminding members to be extra vigilant and advised operators to ensure that these issues are brought to the attention of their accounts departments.
In particular, UK Club advised the following:
- Operators must exercise high levels of alertness and to avoid compliancy.
- In all instances where an unusual request for payment of funds is received that staff double check the veracity of the request. Ideally this will be done by speaking in person with the original sender, so long as you are certain it’s not the fraudster you are talking to.
You can the full bulletin below
