BATU PAHAT: A logistics company lost RM321,698.74 after falling victim to an email scam.
The scam involved fraudulent emails that led the company's cashier to transfer funds to an overseas bank account under false pretences.
The 41-year-old company's female cashier received an email from their foreign business partners requesting USD 94,555.00 (RM448,215.11) to be transferred to their new overseas bank account on March 27.
The payment was for the rental of a container.
District acting police chief Superintendent Shahrulanuar Mushaddat Abdullah Sani said the woman received the email purportedly from the overseas company her employer regularly dealt with.
The content of the email was to inform her of their change of new banking details for the payment purposes.
The cashier, who assumed it was an authentic request, proceeded to transfer the funds without verifying the change.
On April 2, she transferred USD 94,555.00 (RM448,215.11) from the company account to the given international bank account.
She then contacted their business partners to confirm the bank transaction.
To her dismay, she was told, there were no changes to the bank account.
She then checked the received email and realised it was fake.
Shahrulanuar said the email had been crafted to closely resemble the legitimate address, which is a common tactic in business email compromise (BEC) scams to deceive recipients.
He said in an attempt to recover the funds, she immediately contacted the company bank to cancel the transaction.
However, part of the transf was approved and the bank manager managed to stop payment amounting to USD 26,108.46 (RM122,709.76), while the remaining USD 68,446.54 (RM321,698.74) had been withdrawn.