Lethbridge businesses are being warned to take steps against a major scam making the rounds.
The “CEO fraud” involves scammers sending an email, impersonating the CEO or other person in authority’s email address, to request a wire transfer of money to a third party.
Lethbridge Police say the spoofed email looks legitimate and makes the request sounds both urgent and confidential. Upon receipt of the official-looking email, an unsuspecting employee complies with the request and transfers the money. Once the fraud is detected the money is usually long gone.
LPS notes it’s aware of at least two significant CEO frauds here where large corporations have fallen victim and in one case a local public institution lost $350,000.
Back in August, the City of Saskatoon got swindled for a whopping one million plus dollars.
Lethbridge Police are asking local businesses to educate their employees about the CEO scam and be skeptical of financial requests made in email.