FIRMS in West Cork have been warned to be on the lookout after a scam email was sent, appearing to come from a local business organisation.
The bogus email was sent to members of Clonakilty Chamber of Commerce requesting payment for ‘outstanding bills’.
A local business informed Clonakilty Chamber of the scam.
Clonakilty Chamber administrator Mick Hanly said the email looked ‘convincing’ and warned that other town chambers in West Cork could be similarly targeted.
‘It’s a pretty good one, as scam emails go,’ he said.
‘The language and grammar is quite good and convincing and it looks okay. The email address is totally wrong but the danger is some people don’t take too much note of the email address and they could reply.’
The subject line in the email was ‘outstanding bills’, and it claimed to be from Clonakilty’s ‘accounts receivable’ team.
A genuine link to Clonakilty Chamber was also on the email which lent the scam an air of authenticity.
‘The same pattern could be used to target any of the other business chambers in towns in West Cork,’ warned Mick.
Gardaí said that text and email scams claiming to be from legitimate businesses, ‘gov.ie’ and other State agencies are widely in circulation.
Some ask recipients to click a link to provide bank details and, in some cases, to hand over their bank card to a courier.
Customers should contact local gardaí if they have any suspicions.
