Know how careful new employees need to be to not fall into virtual scams
Article originally published on the SZC-Group website - https://www.szc-group.com/know-how-careful-new-employees-need-to-be-to-not-fall-into-virtual-scams-and-4-tips-to-help-to-prevent-loss/
New job, new life. Fantastic, isn’t it? Undoubtedly. But like everything else, there’s a place for something terrible to happen. How? I will explain to you now. Hackers have their eyes on that happy new-home employee ad. The goal of hackers is to seek newcomers to apply blows. But how is this done? In an article published on Kaspersky’s blog, signed by the ghostwriter John Snow, the company explains the steps that led to the coup.
According to the article, the first thing is using the new employee’s and company’s names to fetch data from the organization’s managers and then start the scam just using social engineering.
Transfer money to scammers
Using data previously revealed on LinkedIn of life, scammers create the email of a manager or even the company CEO to ask the newbie to do something. Logically, the novice will not question the commands. Sending money to scammers is the goal. Then the fake manager will say that sending the money to another company needs to be done as soon as possible and that he will be paid at the end of the day.
Well, let’s go. What company would ask employees to take money out of their pocket to make payments? Serious? As new as you are, please don’t fall for this scam. It’s very shallow. Speak directly to your superiors about this. It is very naive to fall for it.
The article points out that many scams like this are possible due to the change in the pandemic from office workers to remote work. Yes, this is a problem. However, in cases involving your money, please pick up the phone and call the boss. If you work in different countries, try to contact them via a messaging app or another way. But the scammer’s email spoke as soon as possible! Yes, but it is tough for me to believe that a company needs to borrow money from a newcomer to pay suppliers. You want to keep your job but don’t have to do everything without thinking.
How companies can help employees
I believe that the newbie needs to be patient in his efforts, but the company can help with some steps:
1 – Conduct information security training for employees on day 1. Concepts of social engineering and phishing should be passed on to all newcomers.
2 – Create an information security guide for new employees with clear rules and precautions for the main threats.
3 – Instructions on what practices are used by companies in matters of payments to suppliers and partners.
4 – Conduct periodic training to raise awareness of the importance of all employees.
My suggestion
We all know the excitement of joining an organization. I don’t think it’s a problem for you to put this on LinkedIn. The central issue here is another: credibility. You cannot give credibility to an email that asks you to send your money to pay the organization’s bills. As small and untethered as it may be, believing that you, a newbie, will have to pay vendor expenses out of your pocket is a bit much.
Therefore, the best solution is to stop, breathe and contact your direct superiors. It doesn’t even make the slightest sense for you to pay the bills of the company you just joined. Yeah, I know you’re excited and don’t want to say no to anyone. However, it does not seem suitable for an employee to pay company bills.
Criminals play with our feelings: fear, vanity, joy, and desire to do our best. But that doesn’t mean we’ll fall that easy, right? Think before you act.
With information from the Kaspersky blog
First image by mohamed_hassan/Pixaby