Η ΕΕ ενημερώνει εφιστά την προσοχή των δικαιούχων στα ακόλουθα και τους καλεί να είναι ιδιαίτερα προσεκτικοί με τις συναλλαγές τους.
Reported cases of identity theft and hacks aiming at transferring funds from the beneficiary/coordinator of the project to a bank account opened by fraudsters to receive the funds destined for a project partners are taking place. Beneficiaries/Coordinators should be aware of the following:
- Fraudsters tend to use email addresses of the project partners that are very similar, but never identical. For instance: webb@skynet.be will be changed to james.web@skynet.be. Or the name will be identical, but the email provider will be different;
- Fraudsters will request that a transfer be made from the beneficiary/coordinator to a new bank account for which they will submit forged documents from a bank showing the name and details of the project partner;
- When the funds are transferred to the wrong bank account, the funds are immediately withdrawn by the fraudsters, and the funds are lost.
Beneficiaries/coordinators should be informed that it remains the beneficiaries’ responsibility to ensure that they only deal with the identified contact people of the partner organisations. They should therefore adopt a very critical approach to correspondence received from the project partners, especially if the aim of the correspondence is to change the partner organisation’s bank account.