Enterprising scammers recently targeted the UK's leading roller shutter company in a bid to defraud them of cash.
Westwood Security Shutters Ltd (Manchester) received a seeemingly genuine enquiry for fire rated roller shutters from an individual claiming to be from Abu Dhabi.
The individual concerned managed to maintain a veil of legitimacy by asking seemingly reasonable, genuine questions about quotes, delivery times and after service care but also stating that the job needed to be undertaken at speed.
Having obtained Westwood's bank details for payment of an initial proforma invoice of £7500, the con-artists attempted to pay-in £65,000 with a stolen cheque in London.
Before the cheque cleared, there was an attempt to recoup the overpayment.
However, the fraudsters were thwarted by eagle-eyed bank officials who blocked their transaction.
Sales Director Matt Sands said: There was no obvious signs at the start that we were dealing with fraudsters, as they behaved to all intent and purposes like a legitimate customer.
This could have been potentially a very costly fraud, and we want to highlight this issue in case they try the same scam with anybody working in our business.
