Cyber Security for Bookkeepers – How are scammers trying to get you

Every contract bookkeeper loves receiving these emails but they can wreak havoc with your computer

Emails like these usually means you have a new client and the client has invited you to start doing the bookkeeping for them on their MYOB file.

Everything about the email looks good but here is what to look for and the steps to take:

1. Check to see if you have ever spoken to a company called USL Medical Pty Ltd
2. Check the sender (this one looks authentic)
3. Hover your mouse over the link and see where it links to

Have you spoken with the company?

This seems easy and logical and it makes sense if you are a one person business – you WOULD KNOW!

If you are an employee and part of a bigger accounting or bookkeeping firm, or even if you work remotely and can’t just yell out and ask someone else, you could accidently click on the link for the excitement of being invited.

If you’re a junior bookkeeper you should probably forward this on to someone more senior because they often manage access to clients accounts – check your procedures for clarification.

Check the senders details

If you just click on the Senders area of your email there is a lot of information there. No one usually needs to look in this area because we just focus on:

1. The Senders name (not email address)
2. Subject
3. Body or contents of the email

If the scammers are unsophisticated you’ll see very quickly that the “From” email address looks suspicious. If they are slightly better they’ll show a website that looks official but neglect some other details.

Hover over the button or link

Scammers could be looking for your login details by presenting what looks like a login page. If you don’t look closely to see if the website is official you may accidentally enter your login details into their website.

These scammers will then be able to log into your admin account and ACCESS ALL your client accounts!

Sometimes the link will take you to a malicious website that wants you to download something to your computer.

When I checked the links for a couple of the malicious emails we were sent a couple days later they didn’t work.

If you’re game – check the offending website

When checked the malicious websites the IP address wasn’t working so it looks like the security breach was picked up and resolved.

If you clicked on the link as soon as the email arrived you might find a different situation!

This kind of attack is called Spoofing

The act of trying to appear as someone else is called Spoofing and it has become a major issue since the arrival of the Internet in our lives.

Trying to impersonate a business to collect your details is called Phishing.

This is what MYOB says about how to deal with phishing websites.

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Enrol in the Complete MYOB Business Pro course or enrol into both version of MYOB for a little bit extra.

Has this happened to you?

If you’ve been affected by this type of attack I’d love to hear from you. Please send a reply email (if you are a subscriber) and let me know what happened.