Email Impersonation

Has your office fallen victim to a scam targeting fund transfers or something similar via email?

Recently, two ADRA offices experienced what is known as ‘Email Impersonation’. An email impersonation attack typically involves an email that seems to come from a trusted source. Sometimes the email attack may start with a message that looks like it comes from a CEO, Director or another staff member in ADRA – but it’s not.

So how does it happen?

• The email address of an ADRA Office’s Finance Director or Manager is hacked and the hacker finds a string of emails relating to an expected bank transfer.
• The hacker creates a similar domain name and email address (i.e. [email protected]), impersonates the ADRA staff member, and requests funds to be sent to a different bank account providing plausible reasons.
• If the ADRA Office sending the funds doesn’t notice that the request comes from a slightly different email address, the email could be considered as genuine and you mistakenly send funds to the scammers bank account.
• Once a bank transfer request is executed by the sending bank, especially internationally, it’s very difficult or even impossible to recall it as it could have been completed in as little as a few hours if not minutes.

How do you avoid this happening to you?

• Create and use your own domain name i.e. “adra(country name).org”, rather than using Gmail or Yahoo. If using Outlook Exchange, you have the option to have a banner pop up at the top of all external emails alerting you to a new contact – this excludes any domains or email addresses you have ‘whitelisted’.
• If you receive a request to change recipient bank details, call or have a non-electronic communication with a person you know at the recipient office to have confirm it is legitimate.
• Insurance policies are available in ADRA to cover cyber risk, but require that IT protections systems and protocols be in place.  
• Though changing your password may not be enough to stop a hacker after they have accessed your account, it is important that you use secure passwords that are strong and have not been used anywhere else. Using a tool like Bitwarden can help you generate and manage secure passwords, even for online banking.

If your email account is hacked, contact the ADRA Source technical team for support by emailing [email protected].

To avoid any potential security risks in future, ADRA Source provides email and hosting services (including for domains) on ADRA’s very own cloud servers. If you are interested in getting your office started, simply email [email protected] to raise a ticket.