'Nigerian prince' email scam 2.0: How to avoid falling victim

[DGUtley]

'Nigerian prince' email scam 2.0: How to avoid falling victim to social engineering cyberattacks. Something similar to below happened to a large firm in Akron a few years ago. It wasn't a debt collection, it was a property transfer but the same general steps. The partners had to pony up big time.

Lawyers at Owens, Schine & Nicola, a personal injury firm in Connecticut, thought they had an easy collections matter to resolve. In September 2008, the firm received an email from Donna Stepp, an attorney in North Carolina. According to the email, Stepp’s client, Chen Wu, the director of the Shenzhen Shan Magnetism Industry Co. Ltd. in China, needed to settle a debt with Connecticut-based Dynalock Corp. Within the week, Wu reached out to the law firm, explained his situation and signed a retainer agreement. Shortly after, the firm received a Wachovia Bank “official check” for about $200,000, the amount of the debt owed to Wu’s company. The firm deposited the check in its trust account and waited instructions from Wu to wire the money to a bank account in South Korea, which the law firm did. Unfortunately, while Donna Stepp is an attorney in North Carolina and Shenzhen Shan Magnetism Industry Co. and Dynalock are real businesses, none of them took part in this transaction, according to court documents. The check was fake, the debt collection was a scam and the law firm was out nearly $200,000.


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'Nigerian prince' email scam 2.0: How to avoid falling victim to social engineering cyberattacks

[jigglepete]

What would happen if these scam artists used their powers for good? Oh what a world it would be...SMH