“With AI, we only see fire”

Two very recent cases of scams with invoices recall how the “RNA Hackers” compete in ingenuity to roll their victims. Now helped by artificial intelligence, the thugs manage to fly several thousand, even tens of thousands of euros by pretending to be respectable companies.

This is not a new phenomenon, but the way of proceeding scammers has greatly improved. They pretend to be a company that has a storefront or with which their victims were in contact To steal money from them. This scam is the invoice scam. In particular, she recently made two victims on the side of Herve and Bastogne, reports the future.

The first couple was scammed after calling on a company responsible for the insulation of its roof. After ordering a new car in a garage, the second couple lost more than 46,000 euros. No more than the entrepreneur, the mechanic is not responsible for this scam. Thieves are actually strangers exercising their misdeeds from abroadlike India or North Korea, advances Olivier Bogaert, a cybersecurity specialist in the federal police.

A painful recall bite

After calling on the services of an entrepreneur, the hervians received a digital bill that they immediately paid. “I make the payment directly. People worked. They must be paid. We are Réglos, ”comments the woman with our colleagues. A few weeks later, the couple received a payment reminder. He tells himself that it is a mistake and does not follow up on it. But the following month, a second reminder reached him, increased by 125 euros for the delay. The entrepreneur will let them know that, apart from a deposit, he has never seen the color of the money that his customers owed him.

In fact, the first bill received electronically was a false. The scammers intercepted her While she was making her way to the customer’s mailbox. They falsified the identity of the entrepreneur in Y Replacing the bank account number by another. Result, instead of arriving on that of the independent, the money was fired on the account of the scammer. The scenario is perfectly identical for the Bastogne couple who have never seen the color of the car for which they had spent more than 46,000 euros.

Everything is easier with AI

There is still a short time ago, certain clues allowed the seasoned eyes to know when an email or a document was a false: presence of spelling mistakes in communication, logo of the pixelated company, etc. “But now, with artificial intelligence, we only see fire, emails are perfectly written“Indicates Olivier Bogaert. A simple glance is no longer enough. “Especially when you read an email on your phone And not a computer, because the address of the recipient is often not visible directly. ” However, if that was the case, the recipient could realize that the email address is not the right one, “and that it comes from abroad”.

A question remains hanging: how do the scammers do it to know that their victim called on the services of X? According to the cybersecurity specialist, Computer intrusions in Belgian banking systems Hackers have enabled personal data from many customers. “They see that a deposit has been paid and watch out when the final bill will be sent, for example,” he explains. To perfect their false identity, they sometimes go On Linkedinwhere some companies publicly display the names of their employees. It is enough for the scammers to pretend to be one of them. ”

The scam with invoices, by e-mail as via the post office

The risk of scams to invoices is large electronically, and it is not nonexistent by post. Olivier Bogaert notably mentioned cases of paper invoices which had been stolen in mailboxesthen modified (in particular the account number) and returned to the address of the victims. These did not suspect the scam, proceeded to the transfer.

With this scam, customers are not not the only victims. Whether a mechanic, a construction or renovation specialist, the independent whose identity was usurped is also a victim of this scam with the invoices. The risk is indeed that the customer no longer has the means to pay The entrepreneur, underlines the SPF Economy.