VICTORIA -- Police in Victoria are warning the public about a “sophisticated internal email” scam that has cheated at least one resident out of $1,000.
Investigators say the victim received an email purportedly from an email address that closely resembled that of the CEO of the company the victim works for.
The fraudster, claiming to be the CEO, instructed the employee to purchase 10 gift cards worth $100 each using her own credit card.
“When the employee asked to use the CEO’s credit card for the purchase, the fraudster increased the sense of urgency, indicating that this was an immediate need and assuring the victim that they would be refunded if they used their own credit card,” Victoria police said in a statement Friday.
The employee bought the gift cards and then shared the numbers from the back of the cards with the fraudster.
The employee then brought the gift cards to the actual CEO, at which point she learned she had been the victim of a fraud.
Police say the same company was recently victimized by an email phishing scam, but the employee targeted in this case is new and had not been trained on such scams.
“While officers are investigating, it is unlikely the employee’s funds will be recovered,” police said.
