16.12.2019

Beware false emails

Japanese based crane and aerial lift manufacturer Tadano is warning its customers of a series of false emails purporting to come from the manufacturer, advising customers that its bank accounts have changed and asking them to pay any funds due into the new account, rather than the old.

In order to avoid such errors it has adopted a new policy that is intended to avoid such an incident. No matter who you are paying it is always wise to check verbally / in person when advised of any account changes. From our experience bona fide healthy companies change paying-in accounts very rarely.

The Tadano letter is published in full below.

“Dear Valued Customers,

Thank you for always doing business with us.

As you all well know, while we often use e-mail in our daily communication, e-mail spoofing incidents have been widespread worldwide.

It is unfortunate that we must inform you it occurred with us recently. What actually happened was that a spoofing e-mail was sent to our customer informing them of a change of our bank account.

Although we barely avoided the worst case scenario this time, taking this opportunity, we would like you to understand that our standard practice is to use a letter and phone call as a means to inform you of a change of our bank account. We never use e-mail in such situations.

Therefore, if you happen to receive a change of bank account notice via e-mail, please let us know. When notifying us, please make sure not to use any number or information appearing in the e-mail you received, but instead look up our authentic contact information.

We would also appreciate it if you would not notify us using e-mail when you wish to notify us about a change regarding your bank account. Instead, please use a letter or phone call. We will also contact you if we need to confirm whether your information is authentic or not.

We are sure that the above practice will help keep both of us safe and secured against any e-mail spoofing while doing business. Thank you for your understanding and we hope for a continued business relationship with you.

Yours sincerely”