Scammers are increasingly deceiving Russian importers by email

The trend is associated with an increase in the number of links in payment chains, which gives scammers the opportunity to disguise themselves as different participants in the supply process, Leer explained.

According to the post, scammers are attacking the importer and supplier’s corporate email servers with thousands of phishing emails. The attackers then disguise themselves as foreign suppliers and send letters to the importer from a fake postal address, which often differs from the real one by only one character.

Finally, the fraudsters send the interlocutor an invoice (an invoice containing details and a list of goods), which the unsuspecting importer pays. Since the transfer is carried out voluntarily, it is almost impossible to return the funds, noted the Vedomosti interlocutor.

According to the managing partner of the Nordic Star law firm, Andrey Gusev, the chances of getting your money back increase if you seek help from lawyers as soon as possible. Success will depend on the speed of response, cooperation with the bank and law enforcement authorities and the peculiarities of the legislation of the country to which the funds were transferred, he said.

This type of fraud can be avoided or its risks minimized by introducing financial security mechanisms into the transaction, such as a letter of credit (a guarantee from the bank that the seller will receive payment if certain conditions are met) or an escrow account. . , a representative of the Russian Export Center told the newspaper.

Mass attacks on corporate emails with phishing letters in January-June of this year began to be used by attackers 105% more frequently compared to the average level in 2023. The largest number of phishing attacks were carried carried out against transport and logistics companies, as well as industrial companies, said BI.Zone CESP specialists.

According to the FACCT cybersecurity center, in 2024 the place of phishing links in malicious emails began to be occupied by malicious files with ZIP or RAR extension: the use of archives makes it possible to bypass antivirus mail systems and reduces the cost of a hacker attack.