Fraud risks during the summer period: how to stay vigilant?

As the summer holidays approach, we continue to observe an increase in fraud attempts targeting businesses, potentially compromising the security of strategic and financial information and causing significant losses. Our experts share the "essentials" to raise awareness among your teams and protect yourselves against the most common types of fraud.

The Most Common Frauds Encountered by Businesses

• CEO Fraud: A malicious individual contacts your accounting department, posing as the CEO or a Board Member. They insistently request an urgent transfer of a large amount of money.
• Supplier Fraud: A contact pretends to be a supplier and requests a bank account details change (IBAN).
• Phishing and Spear Phishing: A fraudulent link or attachment in an email imitates that of a legitimate company. This "phishing" leads to the installation of spyware via an executable file.
• Ransomware: A particular type of malware is installed—via a link or attachment—inside an email. This software encrypts the data it accesses, rendering it unreadable, and then demands a ransom for recovery.
• Fake Technician Fraud: A technician from one of your service providers has their identity stolen. This could be the IT technician from your bank requesting a test of your bank details or from your IT provider pretending to carry out a fake repair.
• Other forms of fraud are also common, such as data theft, denial of service, "vishing," etc.
   

Best Practices to Protect Against Fraud Risks

1. Be Cautious with Suspicious Messages

   Look for plausible but vague subject lines, a fraudulent sender's email address (e.g., ".com" instead of ".fr"), clickable links, attachments, spelling errors, and unusual syntax.

2. Verify Financial Requests

   This is particularly important when dealing with payments, transfers, or requests to change bank account details. In case of doubt, contact the person or organization directly using pre-registered contact details and never respond to unsolicited emails requesting sensitive information.

3. Raise Awareness Among Employees

   Ensure all employees are informed about the risks of fraud and the security best practices they should adopt.

4. Strengthen Internal Procedures

   Implement strong internal controls to reduce the risk of fraud, such as requiring multiple approvals for significant financial transactions and ensuring a clear separation of duties to avoid conflicts of interest.

5. SMonitor Accounts and Transactions

   A detailed and regular review of your bank accounts and transactions allows you to detect any suspicious activity quickly.