Thomas Juchum, Managing Director of EUROMOVERS International, has contacted The Mover  to highlight the problem of e-mail spoofing: the forgery of an e-mail header so that a message appears to have come from someone other than the actual source.

Two members of EUROMOVERS have been the unfortunate victims of spoofing.  E-mail traffic between them was intercepted by a fraudster who forged the e-mail return address and claimed to be one of the members.  They demanded that payment of legitimate invoices be made to an alternate bank account.  The unsuspecting member made payment, only to subsequently realise that fraud had taken place when the other member queried the unpaid invoices.

Unfortunately, via a scripting language called PHP, a fraudster can easily spoof an e-mail header.  It’s therefore important to ensure your IT infrastructure and computers are secure, for example by having e-mail software requiring ‘authentication’ and for computers to have good, up to date, antivirus and anti-malware software with frequent scans being initiated.  Also be vigilant with your e-mails: never click unfamiliar links or download unfamiliar attachments.


Photo: Thoman Juchum