Gardai in Waterford are investigating an incident where an Irish company transferred over $74,000 into a fraudulent account based in China.
The company had previously negotiated the purchase of a machine, to be used in the manufacture of PPE for the HSE, from a company based in China.
Due diligence was carried out and it was confirmed that this was a valid company.
A fraction of the price was agreed to be transferred as a deposit.
The Irish company then received fraudulent emails, purporting to have come from the Chinese company, containing bank account details for the payment of the deposit.
A total of $74,600 was transferred to this fraudulent account on the 27th of May.
The company was notified of the fraudulent transaction by their bank on Monday and after liaising with Waterford Gardai and the Garda National Economic Crime Bureau the misdirected payment was returned to the Irish company's bank account.
Gardai ask all businesses to report any incidents of invoice redirect fraud to the local Garda Station and financial institution immediately.
They say that as fraudulent transactions of this nature can move very quickly it is important that immediate efforts are made to stop the transactions being completed.
They added that even if the fraud has not been successful, it is possible that the bogus account is being used for other incidents of this nature and reporting it may prevent further incidents of fraud.
