Atlanta police warn of business scam

By Randy Grider
randy@casscountynow.com

The Atlanta Police Department is warning area businesses to be alert of a phishing scam that recently targeted a local company.
Det. T.J Hawley said an employee  at the business received an email that appeared to be from a top executive in the company requesting a wire transfer of $30,000. The employee didn’t immediately make the transfer and later verbally communicated with the company official that the money transfer had yet to be made. That’s when they realized someone had tried to scam them and reported the scheme to the Atlanta police.
Hawley said this “executive scam” often targets businesses that make regularly makes large money transfers. The scammers research the businesses and “masks” email addresses so that even if the employee in charge of money transactions had replied to the request by email, it would have been answered by the scammer.
“Fortunately, it didn’t work and the company didn’t lose its money, but businesses need to be aware of this scam and verify requests for wireless invoice payments or money transfers,” Hawley said. 
Hawley said this scam is similar to the recent IRS scam that targeted individuals. Anytime an individual or business is asked to make immediate payments, they should be aware that scammers often use a sense of urgency in their fraudulent schemes.