Exclusive | Scammers use fake résumés and email viruses to infiltrate international businesses and steal US$42 million, Hong Kong police reveal
In largest case, a European construction material supply company was duped into transferring US$7 million into a Hong Kong bank account.
A construction material supply company based in Europe has been duped into transferring US$7 million (HK$55 million) into a Hong Kong bank account in the latest case of email fraud that is rife in the city.
The scammers hacked into the company’s email accounts and pretended to be one of the international corporation’s senior managers from its United States branch, contacted the accounts department at the firm’s headquarters and made the money transfer request.
According to multiple police sources this is the largest commercial email scam this year and comes amid a 164 per cent surge in the amount of money involved in such cases in the first three months of 2018.
The sting was among 191 commercial email fraud cases in the first three months of this year, in which crooks got away with US$42 million (HK$330 million) – compared with the US$16 million (HK$125 million) lost in 124 cases for the same period last year.
Hackers will typically gain access to a company’s sensitive information by sending a virus inside an email disguised as a job application with a résumé attached. Opening the document allows the virus to infect a company’s servers, giving the crooks access to information about the business, the chief executive officer, other senior staff, and the firm’s clients.
