This week, some of you might have received an email purporting to come from the former owner of this website/newsletter, brian@wideformatonline.com. In it, the sender (not Brian) asks that any payments due be put on hold and new bank details will be advised. It’s an attempt at fraud - phishing or ID theft.
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| Be careful online. Cybercrime is rampant. |
If you have received such an email and hit the reply button, you might see that the return email address is different, presidentspace@mail.com. This should rouse initial suspicion. Somehow, whoever is behind the scam has got hold of email addresses and sent out the scam emails – do not under any circumstances reply to one if you receive it, and certainly don’t believe it came from Brian or this publication.
Such scams are rife in the internet era but this one hits right home into our industry; we were lucky that eagle-eyed readers spotted the risk and contacted us. But it can happen to anyone and probably will and maybe a few unsuspecting companies will fall for the deception.
The IP address 74.208.5.20 is the ISP host located in Pennsylvania, USA but of course the real perpetrator could be anywhere. The ISP is 1&1 internet, owned by one of Europe’s largest internet companies, United Media AG in Germany, listed on the Frankfurt exchange, employing over 6,000 people and with revenues of over AUD$5 billion. 1&1 Internet is favoured by scammers because they don’t ask for proof of ID or even a mobile phone number to set up a free ‘mail.com’ email account.
With Scott Morrison intending to introduce new laws that would hold social media companies accountable for spreading terrorist messages and videos following the Christchurch abomination, it does make you wonder if the internet carriers of scam and phishing messages who make it easy for these ratbags, should be asked to tighten their systems so the perpetrators can more easily be identified – and prosecuted.
To date, we do not know of anyone who has fallen for the con, but here is the offending email just in case, under the subject header:
“OUTSTANDING INVOICE REQUEST”:
RE; PAST DUE BALANCE
Dear customer,I'm checking back to see if there is any update as far as payment to us, as we currently have to give you an updated information due to an on-going audit being carried out on our accounts by the bank. Please get back to us immediately with the total amount that is outstanding with corresponding due dates and invoices respectively, kindly hold off on any payment due as we currently need to give you an updated bank details.Your immediate response would be highly appreciated.Kind regards,
Wide Format Online magazine.
PO Box 76, Gordon, NSW 2072, Australia
email: Brian@wideformatonline.com
If anyone receives an email of this nature, just trash it. Brian sold this publication last October, is blissfully retired and no longer involved with Wide Format Online. Curiously, the address details are correct. As with most scam emails, this one is poorly written: ‘we have to give you an updated information…’ and ‘we currently need to give you an updated bank details’ for example. This indicates a non-English speaking author.
Anyone can fall victim to such scams…it’s easy to say, ‘well you should spot it’ and many do but all it takes is a moment of distraction or vulnerability and the money goes down the drain. Be alert and on the lookout for any dodgy emails, never volunteer bank details or personal information and never forward email addresses without permission.
If you think you have been phished or scammed, there is a government body known as ACORN (Australian Cybercrime Online Reporting Network) where you can lodge the details at: www.acorn.gov.au
We’ve reported the above one there as it is blatant identity theft.
