SINGAPORE - A tech equipment reseller company came close to losing more than $100,000 worth of laptops to a scam.The firm thought that it was receiving an order from Nanyang Technological University when it got an e-mail from a Mr Daniel Chong on July 18.
"Previously, when NTU launched tenders requesting laptops, we had always participated. So we thought that we were already in their list of prospective vendors and that the e-mail was legitimate." Unknown to the victims, these e-mails are sent by scammers, who have hacked into the e-mail accounts of these business contacts or who are sending them from spoofed e-mail addresses.
Using another alias when he contacted Mr Chan, the scammer had posed as an employee of GP Industries, a Singapore-based battery manufacturer. After Mr Chan called Mr N.P, the duo realised that there were other discrepancies, such as how despite the scammer's claim of being from NTU, his e-mail address did not use the university's domain name.
She said:"Companies and suppliers that do not keep in regular contact may not be aware of these staff changes, potentially creating gaps in their processes that scammers may take advantage of."Ms Evelyn Chow, managing director of human resources consultancy DecodeHR, said that due to the pandemic, many employees work from home.