ILMA Compoundings - April 2020 - 5

LETTER FROM THE CEO

Small Businesses in
the Crosshairs
"Dearest One,
"This letter may come to you as a surprise, as we have not met or handled
business deals in the past. Nevertheless, I contact you with genuine intentions and
hope I can trust you with this opportunity. We have 30 million U.S. dollars which
we got from a crude oil contract in the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation.
We are seeking your assistance and permission to remit this money into your
account. Your commission is 30% of the money."
It's been some time since I got email correspondence like the one above, which
used to clog my inbox. Though this scam was amazingly successful, the criminals involved have upped their game. They're no longer wasting time sending
thousands of emails to their "dearest ones." Cyber schemes targeting small to
medium-sized businesses are raking in almost $2 billion a year. And if you think
you're not vulnerable, you're as naïve as those who fell for the above scam.
Since ILMA began working on cybersecurity issues, we've learned of a number
of members who have been compromised. In one case, cybercriminals were able
to hack into an executive's email account and observe how the executive corresponded with staff, vendors, banks and so on. The cybercriminals were able to
impersonate the executive, sending emails that dictated payment of fake invoices.
They were so convincing that the accounting department paid them. Over time,
vast sums of money were transferred to the cybercriminals.
Another scam involves fake requests to divert payroll funds. Cybercriminals
send an email to the business's payroll or human resources department, claiming
to be an employee and requesting to update direct deposit information. The
employee's pay is then diverted to the scammer's account.
Email scammers are savvier and more successful than ever. In 2019, the FBI
received almost 24,000 complaints of business and email account compromises.
The modern Nigerian scammer now works in an office park and begins training
staff on fraud techniques at an early age. While there are quite a few enterprises
operating out of Nigeria, cybercriminals can be found all around the world. It's
critical that every business develop a strategy to combat these attacks. ILMA has
done the hard work for you with our cybersecurity video and toolkit, available at
www.ilma.org. The toolkit provides a template that you can customize for your
operation. The video provides 15 minutes of training your employees can watch at
any time so they don't fall victim to the many scams that proliferate.
As a first step, I hope after reading this article you will send an email to all your
employees who have computers and ask them to watch the training video. So
many things in business are beyond your control. This is something that you can
successfully combat. I hope you'll do it today.
Holly Alfano
Chief Executive Officer

http://www.ilma.org

ILMA Compoundings - April 2020

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