Many small companies used to trust that when invoices or statements arrived, that they neededed to be paid but we all learned that scammers send these things out hoping the business is too busy to check, so it is essential to have systems in place to ensure only valid bills are paid.

Scammers still try sending in invoices, statements and other reasons why we need to pay them for some supposedly completed piece of work or product or other service.

A latest one claims to be from Yorkshire Logistics Group – which is a genuine company but they have nothing to do with this scam.  It’s likely the scammer just randomly picked a company name.

The email is actually from fixdepartures.com – if the sender’s company name and their email address don’t match then it’s an obvious scam message.

The email tells us we owe them £356.21 and immediate payment is required. Trying to be helpful it suggests that we can have a hard copy sent to us on request.

There is no attached invoice as the scammer just wants a reply to the email which is strange as the sender’s email address starts with “noreply” so this scammer doesn’t understand that it normally means you cannot reply to that email – not difficult to guess really.

Always be careful of any unsolicited emails, text messages or calls that demand payment of any kind – ensure your systems pick up theses fakes and ensure you only pay for products and services you definitely have received.

If you have any experiences with these scams do let me know, by email.