{"id":937516,"date":"2026-10-23T00:50:14","date_gmt":"2026-10-23T00:50:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/937516\/"},"modified":"2026-10-23T00:50:14","modified_gmt":"2026-10-23T00:50:14","slug":"scam-warning-innocent-seeming-email-nearly-cost-kates-business-118000","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/937516\/","title":{"rendered":"Scam warning: Innocent-seeming email nearly cost Kate\u2019s business $118,000"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Kate received an email that appeared to be from a business supplier asking for a $118,000 payment to be directed to a new bank account, she didn\u2019t think anything of it.<\/p>\n

Previous emails from the supplier had been legitimate. This one, however, was not.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

A new scam impersonates legitimate business emails to target victims.\u00a0Yuliya Taba<\/p>\n

Kate, who works for a family business which sells furniture in Melbourne\u2019s<\/a> Bayside area, had become the latest target of a \u201cbusiness email compromise\u201d scam<\/a> which has been operating nationwide.<\/p>\n

The scammers are able to impersonate business emails to insert themselves into existing email conversations.<\/p>\n

In Kate\u2019s case, from August 25 to September 5, she had received several legitimate emails from a business supplier to organise shipping of outdoor furniture items for $118,000.<\/p>\n

Then, from September 7 to September 25, hackers intercepted the same email thread and impersonated the supplier, emailing Kate to say the bank account information had changed.<\/p>\n

The hackers then pressured Kate into making the payment, claiming it was urgent, and Kate complied.<\/p>\n

Kate was then alerted to the potential fraud by her bank, which then led her to contacting her supplier on the phone, who revealed the emails did not originate from them.<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt completely sick when I realised I\u2019d been scammed. It had never happened to me before,\u201d Kate said.<\/p>\n

She reported the scam immediately to police via ReportCyber and contacted the bank, but the latter were unable to recall the money.<\/p>\n

Luckily, Victoria<\/a> Police with support from Australian Federal Police were able to block the funds and return the money.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought I\u2019d lost the money for good and it would\u2019ve had such a devastating impact on our small business,\u201d Kate said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a huge relief the police were able to help and get the money back for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kate\u2019s mishap was not an isolated police.<\/p>\n

Just in Victoria, police have received 107 reports of this scam since July.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese scammers are impersonating legitimate businesses and suppliers, contacting clients via email to manipulate them into redirecting genuine payments straight into fraudulent accounts,\u201d Cybercrime Squad Detective Sergeant Dean Waters said.<\/p>\n

\"Hacker<\/p>\n

Suspected hacks should be reported immediately, police say.\u00a0Getty Images\/iStockphoto<\/p>\n

\u201cThey then pressure the victims by creating a false sense of urgency and claiming payments must be made immediately.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said anybody who received an unexpected email demand for immediate payment, event if it appeared to be from a legitimate source, should contact the business in question by phone to check it.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019ve sent money or banking details to a scammer, contact your bank immediately,\u201d Waters said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019ve been targeted, we encourage you to make a report to police. The more we know, the more it can help us identify offenders, disrupt their activities and stop others from also falling victim.\u201d<\/p>\n

More information and advice about this scam can be found online by visiting the Scamwatch website.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Kate received an email that appeared to be from a business supplier asking for a $118,000 payment…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":937517,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-937516","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/937516","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=937516"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/937516\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/937517"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=937516"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=937516"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=937516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}