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312 Points
Posted 1 year ago
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390 Points
Cosmic Invoice may be able to help following ways:
1. Assured Acknowledgement from the receiver
2. Your email name is shown as the sender not Reckon Hosted.
3. Stripe payment which is secured PCI compliant online payment method
I don't know if what we offer may be a better option.
If you need to know further please call me : CHANDRA 0407068942
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312 Points
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630 Points
Was your invoice sent direct from Reckon or from your email system?
Many thanks.
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312 Points
Rav, Community Manager
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91,492 Points
I believe a senior technician has been trying to get in touch on a couple of occasions today but has missed you. Can you let me know an appropriate time for the team to give you a buzz and I'll pass this through.
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370 Points
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2,736 Points
Gillian, Accredited Partner
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1,506 Points
This happened to a QBO (Intuit) file as well. I also know that a fellow colleague has told me they know of this happening in MYOB file as well. The recipient of the emails need to be very careful of the sender address - it can be 1 letter different, but it will not be from the correct address. The only thing that can be done is to issue an email to all your customers saying that any change of bank acc needs to be verified by a phone call.
Scammers are forever coming up with new ways.
Gillian
SueMax, Accredited Partner
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92 Points
Pretty much everything can be hacked these days so I'm not sure how the software providers can GUARANTEE sensitive information is not at risk.
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2,736 Points
I am weary of how we send emails through Reckon as it is as there is not alot of tracking - (hence i bcc - every invoice / statement etc to my email )
Users need to be assured their information is secure.
Gillian, Accredited Partner
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1,506 Points
The bcc of an invoice will not stop this process described...I have seen it in action from other software. The only thing is that ALL users notify their customers of bank details change protocol and to double check via ph. Also to please check sender email address before opening invoices.
Its a sad world out there sometimes!
Gillian
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2,736 Points
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120 Points
In my day job (we don't use Reckon but that's irrelevant), if a supplier changes bank details via letter/email or changed details on an invoice, we send a form to formally change bank details. Then when the form comes back I, as Finance Manager, ring the supplier to verbally verify details. It was during one of these calls a supplier appreciated my call as he recently was victim to this similar scam.
What happened is that the fraudsters were intercepting the email from a removalist company so they knew that the removalist had quoted for a job, the job was done and an invoice was going to be sent. Before the legitimate invoice was created by the removalist the fraudsters sent an email with an identical invoice template attached from a very similar email address as the removalist and the guy paid up. It was only later in the day that he received the legitimate invoice that he rang them to discover the fraudulent invoice but it was too late.
So I think it is irrelevant which accounting system is used, or if the original went to spam, the fraudsters actually intercept and monitor the emails and copy invoice templates and pounce at the right (wrong!) time.
David
Rav, Community Manager
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91,712 Points
Gillian, Accredited Partner
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1,506 Points
Interested to know if Reckon have found out any more info on this issue and perhaps how the mechanics work......
regards,
Gillian
Rav, Community Manager
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91,712 Points
We're extremely confident in the integrity and security of the Hosted platform, however the situation that has outlined here is quite distressing.
We've gathered some information around this specific case from the OP and at this point are currently awaiting approval for further analysis to confirm the output from Hosted.
On a potentially related note, an article I saw recently has some striking similarities which refers to hackers impersonating various businesses through observing their emails -
https://www.smh.com.au/business/small-business/devastating-blow-homewares-business-hit-by-apparent-e...
Its really important to secure all components involved in this process and that includes email accounts, Hosted logins and any other services. If you have a old, short or non-complex password for any services, its best to review this on a regular basis and update them.
Reckon Accounts Hosted will also introduce multi-factor authentication soon which will provide an additional layer of security.
Gillian, Accredited Partner
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1,506 Points
Thankyou....
Yes I hear and agree with you about security for ourselves....but the only invoice interceptions that I know about have come about invoices being sent from hosted or online software....so the invoices are really coming from Reckon, MYOB or Intuit.... So just wondering if Reckon had been able to find out anyway that it happens. I have not heard of any invoices being sent from desktop software.....however as your smh info link shows, that would mean the sender emails have been hacked.
I know this is so so hard to track, monitor or fix.......but any awareness could help. I would love Reckon to keep us up to date on anything they find.
I am about to send an email notifying my personal customers in my data file about the scam, and that ANY bank detail changes need to be verified verbally, which I will encourage them to send to all their customers and then send on down the chain as well. Like Davo above, we all need to now put in additional processes to protect out businesses. And update those processes each time a new scam is discovered.
On that note - wonder if there is customer/community benefit in informing Reckon users of the scam. I understand Reckon would not want to cause any concern for online product use....but there are many out there who would not have even heard of this scam and probably be grateful of being on the front foot.
Gillian
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390 Points
I have had a total overhaul of my security (at a considerable cost of course) and I am a very small business, no employees at all. I am unable to retrieve my money lost because of the hackers and I can't ask the customer to pay again. I would like to see a specific Company/Department/Body in place for businesses that have been affected like so, especially when we have print off proof of the changes and emails. As I have experienced, it is only dealt with the fraud department of the banks and it is at their discretion as to whether they will pay or not.
Gillian, Accredited Partner
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1,506 Points
As it was the Reckon email that was intercepted, it is unlikely that your email account has been compromised from my understanding. However....if it makes you feel more secure, then perhaps a 'snail mail' (posted letter) letter to customers.
Gillian
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312 Points
The customer I sent the invoice - that had been changed, has since told me they have been hacked, we are still waiting on the police - online fraud squad, but it seems to be a spam that can affect any business. I would like to know still, how we can be protected from this, I have sent an email to all my customers stating that any bank detail changes we would notify them by phone, I am also thinking of adding this to my invoice and statement template. But like Catherine said this could be changed also. Most banks refuse to return the funds as they are clear of anything from their prospective. My customer is looking into an insurance policy to protect them - but once again this is an added expense. Another question I have is my invoice was for $44000 - if this money had been remove from the recieving bank account before westpac intercepted who would have been responsible - the customer or me?
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230 Points
One thing that is not clear to me, (I might have missed it but not sure) but was it only the email to the new client that was "doctored" with the fraudulent bank details, or was the actual pdf invoice itself "doctored", or both?
Regards,
Gillian, Accredited Partner
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1,506 Points
I know this was directed to Kathy, but my experience of the Intuit interception and knowledge of the MYOB interception is that the pdf email attachment is 'doctored' as well as the email. in my case it went some thing like.... email said: please ignore the previous invoice emailed as we have now changed our bank details. Please see amended invoice attached with correct details......then when you open pdf it is your invoice perfectly with diff bank details where you normally put yours.
It all looks very legit........only thing just carefully peruse who the email comes from - it is not correct but could only be 1 character wrong...eg my clients email address had 2 t in ltd so it looked like lttd.com.au - and with the rest of email address correct it is hard to detect in our busy lives!
Gillian
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370 Points
In my case, everything was exactly like my emails with no differences. I have the print offs from the customers. The content asked the customers to bank into a different account as the original account was undergoing an audit. That should have been enough for the customers to ring me but because it all looked legitimate they just paid the account. They didn't anything was wrong until I rang them for payment.
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312 Points
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230 Points
I am glad I am aware of the issue as I can be alert to the risk in the future.
It would be interesting to hear the results of the investigations in due course if possible, as to how the interception occurred. By investigations I mean police as well as Reckon as transparency is critical in circumstances such as this.
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