2025-10-26 13:00
publication
2025-10-26 13:00
The police in Płońsk are investigating the case of fraud involving a false invoice. It concerns e-mail correspondence with a contractor from Germany and intercepted by fraudsters regarding the purchase of a bus. The 37-year-old entrepreneur lost over PLN 40,000. euro.
Spokesperson of the District Police Headquarters in Płońsk, Superintendent. Kinga Drężek-Zmysłowska announced on Tuesday that a 37-year-old owner of one of the local companies reported that he had been the victim of a fraud involving a false invoice.
This was the mechanism of the fraud
The man had been cooperating with a bus seller from Germany for several years. All previous transactions went smoothly. This time contacted the seller via a popular messenger. According to the arrangements, he was to receive an invoice by e-mail with transfer details for over PLN 40,000. euro for the ordered bus. The invoice actually arrived, and a moment later another one arrived, allegedly from the same sender.
He informed – as explained by the spokeswoman of the Płońsk police – that the previous document required an accounting correction and therefore he was sending a corrected invoice with a new account number.
Everything looked professional: company logo, message language and seller details. The only difference was the bank account number. The buyer did not suspect the trick and made the transfer. When he sent the payment confirmation to the contractor, the contractor called him with information that the confirmation did not include his bank account number. It turned out that the e-mail correspondence was intercepted and the corrected invoice was the work of fraudsters.
“business email compromise” method
As emphasized by Commissioner Drężek-Zmysłowska, the fraud of which the 37-year-old fell victim is the so-called business email compromise – a method in which criminals break into company email boxes or create confusingly similar copies of them, e.g. by changing one letter or character in the address. Thanks to this, they can take over the thread of the conversation between contractors and change the transfer data at the right time.
Sometimes the victim does not even notice that the sender's address is slightly different from the original, all he has to do is open the e-mail in a hurry and click “reply” or download the attachment – noted the spokeswoman of the Płońsk police.
The police appeal that before making a transfer for an invoice, always compare the account number with previous documents, and in the case of a corrected invoice or a request to change the account, be sure to call the contractor and confirm such information, and it is best to use two-step authentication of company accounts with strong passwords.
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