The fraudsters after your hard earned cash

Although some scams have been going on for centuries and we have become wise to some of their tricks; Fraud is an ever evolving field with fraudsters frequently changing their methods and who they target.  It’s hard to keep fully up to date on who to trust and what best practice to follow.

As Counter Fraud Specialists we do everything we can to try and keep everyone safe by issuing alerts as soon as we hear about new methods being used.

Something that certainly appears to be on the rise is Salary Diversion Fraud. Yes - you heard it right – fraudsters are attempting to divert employees’ salaries. This is a real threat with successful attempts already having been made. There are a couple of ways in which this is happening;  

Similar to Mandate Fraud - Fraudsters have contacted payroll teams via telephone/email to request bank detail changes. Our advice to payroll would be to never change bank details on the back of a standalone request. Whether this be for a supplier or an employee. This should always be followed up with contact to the individual/supplier to check the legitimacy of the call/email.

ESR email – emails have been coming through claiming to be from ESR. There have been a range of emails identified - some stating that employees are entitled to a pay rise. The email includes a link and the employee is invited to log in to ESR through the link. This then allows the fraudster access to your ESR portal. They then sneakily change the bank details and the email address recorded within ESR. They then end up receiving your salary and you do not get notified of the bank detail changes!

There are a few ways in which you can stay safe from these types of scams. Firstly don’t click on links in emails. For the timebeing I would recommend if you receive an email from ESR (even if it looks genuine) I would not click on the link contained within the email. My advice would be to log in to ESR using your usual method – not through the link. This would then allow you to see any notifications. When you do log in to ESR it’s always worth double checking that your bank details and contact information are still correct.

Ensure you check your bank account on pay day – even if you are not desperate for the money it is beneficial to know immediately if there is an issue. Please report any issues to Payroll in the first instance. Payroll will be able to confirm if there has been any issues or if your bank details may have been changed.

Salary Fraud is a real threat and I would hate to see anyone else become a victim to this awful crime!

Please remain vigilant concerning any emails with links or attachments. Suspect everything until you can say for certain that it is genuine. NHS Fraud. Spot it. Report it. Together we Stop it.