SEB: Salary information fraud scheme targeting companies spreading in Estonia

TALLINN – SEB bank is drawing attention to a salary information fraud scheme that is spreading in Estonia and is aimed at companies with the purpose of diverting the salary paid by the employer to the accounts of scammers.

"For example, an employee in human resources or a department manager receives an e-mail seemingly from an employee, in which the employee announces their wish to receive the next month's salary to a new current account. If the e-mail is sent from the employee's personal mailbox, meaning the sender's address is correct, then in this case the employee's mailbox has been previously hacked and the letter sent from there. Often, however, scammers generate a new e-mail address instead, which may be very similar to the correct e-mail or a completely absurd combination of numbers and letters," Katlin Kukk, head of security at SEB Security Center, said in a press release.

If the account number is replaced with a new one, the employee's salary will not reach their account in the new month, but that of the scammers.

SEB advises people who have fallen victim to the scam to contact the police and immediately notify the bank using the contacts on the official website. The sooner the bank is contacted, the more likely it is to close down the avenues that allow further misuse.