Scamming is Serious For Businesses! Meet King From Your Bank …

Scamming is Serious For Businesses! Meet King From Your Bank …

I am probably not alone in getting many awards of millions for a lost relative or for a lottery win:

But there is a serious side, and individuals and companies need to be aware of the scammers who aim to trick them into cleverly designed schemes. For many they may never see their money again. Recently it has been revealed that Hamilton FC were scammed for £800,000 and Heart of Midlothian FC for £80K, and that there could be another four football clubs that were also scammed.

The Hamilton FC scam involved a scammer calling them, and saying they had been hacked, and that they needed them to move money into another account. The scammers then took control of their funds and quickly moved money out of their account. In an instance, the money had disappeared from the football club’s account.

All of this brings back memories of one of the “most successful” cyber criminals … Feezan Hameed (from Glasgow).

Meet King …

It sounds like a script from a movie … a gang pays some money to someone working in a bank to give them the details of their customers (the target), and they then call them up and pretend to be their bank …

Hello. I am from your bank. It seems you have been hacked by a person named ‘King’ from Aberdeen. Everything is okay. Don’t worry. But please could you confirm your login and password, as we need to check it?

and the reply:

Oh dear. Thank you for that. My password is SalmondFish123.

Two days later the target finds out they have no money in their account, and all their life savings have gone. At the same time, the fraudster is flying in a valet from Pakistan to polish their new Lamborghini.

This isn’t Hollywood … this is Glasgow!

While many people think that phishing emails is one of greatest risks for fraud, it is vishing — the act of using the telephone to scam — that can have the greatest impact in terms of fraud. Many people, still, will give away the login details over the phone, if they think they are talking to a trusted person.

In the end, Glasgow-based Feezan Hameed, also known as Feezan Choudhary (see below), was jailed for 11 years. It is thought he made over £113m by scamming companies through a telephone scam. He then used the money to purchase supercars, mansions and expensive holidays. As a cover, Feezan, also known as ‘King’, pretended that he was a music producer, and owned a Bentley, Rolls-Royce, Lamborghini and his two Porsches.

His crime was that he defrauded over 750 UK firms, and he made around £3million every month. The crime involved cold-calling companies and telling them they had been hacked by someone called ‘King’ from Aberdeen, and then asking for the bank details (including their log-in name and password).

Within hours he managed to siphon off funds from their accounts, and also jammed the telephone network of the company with fake calls, in order that they did not get messages from their bank. So that the calls could not be traced, the gang used ‘burner’ mobile phones (which are often used by terrorists and criminals), which, once activated, were ditched after one day.

Insiders are the risk

He also paid insiders in the banks, such as Amy and Emma Daramola (see below), and who were Lloyds customer service assistants. Initially the asked for £50 for each record, but increased this to £250, in order to fund their desire to new clothes:

After receiving the details, Feezan would then contact the customers, and say he was from their bank. In one fraud, alone, he managed to steal £2.2million in minutes from a Gloucestershire-based solicitor’s firm. As solicitor firms often have a good amount of cash in accounts, they became a key target. Another solicitors’ firm in Liverpool lost £500,000 and one in Angelsey lost £670,000. Over £70million was syphoned from a bureaux de change in London and sent to Dubai and Pakistan.

His targets were from Lloyds, Santander, Barclays and RBS, and it is thought that the banks, in some cases, have been refusing to refund the customers, as it was their own fault in releasing the funds. Because of the speed of modern transactions, the funds were often laundered through Pakistan and then sent to money mules, which would convert the funds into cash.

Conclusions

Please beware. Never give any details away on the phone. Unfortunately, people still fall for vishing scams, and businesses are often the target. Many of those involved in the fraud will not receive their money back, as it was their fault. For companies, the best course of action is to train staff to never give away bank details to those on the phone, or in email messages.