I got this from the English translation that sets out how the scam works, and it is one that is quite prevalent in the UK but, as much as it requires some degree of sophistication, the rewards can run into millions.
By gaining control of the email accounts of well-placed individuals in corporations across Europe, the criminals were able to alter requests for payment to send the payments to themselves rather than the business bank accounts that were the intended destinations. In a short period of time, more than 6 million euros were transferred to accounts controlled by the criminals.
I concentrate currently mostly on car vehicle scams I am amazed at how easily car dealers can be duped and, if the scammers use this tactic against them, many of them will go out of business.
Autotrader UK have become much more active against fraudsters recently and they are to be commended for it but, I have to point out that people and car dealers have to take responsibility and precautions themselves, because it's their money they're giving away if they don't.
My aim and that of Autotrader UK is to remove fraudulent adverts but, if a dealer has given away access to his account, the risks to him go far beyond having fraudulent adverts posted in his name. I'm not sure that car dealers understand this. This applies to national dealerships (in fact moreso) as much as one man operations.
It makes more sense economically for a scammer to go for one big successful scam, rather than a whole series at £5,000 to £10,000 a time which could take a year to make the same money. A dealer who gives access to any sort of account he controls to a scammer is taking a terrible risk with his livelihood.
I'll come along later and post up some examples for those who don't believe the risks.
