BEWARE: Here's why you should be concerned if your boss' video call freezes!
Scams are certainly non-discriminatory and target any and everyone...
There is an overwhelming number of scams that have erupted over the past year.
Things that would not even cross our minds, criminal minds have thought about and mastered.
The new thing to watch out for involves calls from your boss.
Since the pandemic, many companies have transitioned into working from home, with employees having their own home offices and communicating with their teams predominantly over video calling.
But the South African Banking Risk Information Centre has revealed an area of concern when it comes to chatting to your boss over a video calling.
Email scams have now upgraded and elevated themselves into video calling impersonation scams.
The South African Banking Risk Information Centre (Sabric) has warned employees to be suspicious of their boss reaching out through virtual meetings then mysteriously experiencing video trouble.
Especially if said boss starts discussions about making payments.
"What used to be fairly simple business email compromise scams have now evolved into elaborate impersonation. Previously, criminals would either gain access to a boss' email, or just spoof their address to make email seem to be coming from them, and issue payment instructions." (Business Insider)
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Employees who handle financial transactions have learnt to have their guards up when it comes to phishing scams and the likes over email.
But, of course, criminals have evolved into exploiting virtual platforms.
"A typical example will see a financial director or similar high-ranking company officer set up a virtual meeting via email. Those attending will see a static image of the convenor, who claims to be having video trouble. In at least some cases, they will sound totally natural, thanks to deep-faked audio, which can simulate the voice of any person if given enough samples of their speech, say from videos posted online." (Business Insider)
Then it's just a matter of convincing the target employee that this is legit and, bam, you've just become a victim to fraud.
With the rise in cybercrime, Sabric has said that they are trying to assist SAPS with forensic analysis. They are also trying to assist with informing the masses about such crime trends.
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