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Lippe district. More and more Lippe companies are being targeted by white-collar criminals. The Lippe Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Detmold (IHK Lippe) is recording a growing number of reports of attempted fraud, some of which cause great damage.
“The perpetrators’ methods are becoming more and more sophisticated and unfortunately companies are not always able to completely ward off the attacks,” says Lars Henning Döhler, head of the legal and central services department at the IHK Lippe, summarizing the situation.
A case currently known to the IHK Lippe illustrates the danger: an email is received in the financial accounting of a medium-sized company. The sender name contains the name of the managing director who is not in the building that day. He instructs the accounting department to immediately transfer 37,000 euros to a supposed supplier account in order to save a deal that would otherwise not take place.
Accounting responds and requests further data. It was only because of the unusually worded answer to this query that the accounting employee became skeptical and stopped the process in time. “This approach is known as CEO fraud and regularly affects our member companies in Lippe,” explains Döhler.
He continues: “This scam has been used for a long time – especially during holiday times. “Companies who have been deceived in this way always come to us for advice.”
As soon as fraud is suspected, the bank should be informed immediately. In many cases, banks, especially internationally networked institutions, can stop payments or even retrieve money that has already been transferred. Fraud prevention expert Ingemar Hansmann also recommends that companies block their accounts from paper transfers if this payment method is not used. Many companies overlook this security gap, which opens the door to criminals with forged signatures.
The IHK Lippe is clearly feeling an increasing demand for safety information and is recording a higher number of visitors to information events in this area. “Our members take the topic very seriously and want to prepare,” said Döhler.