scammers

3 Simple Steps To Protect Your Aircraft Maintenance Operation From Email Wire Fraud Scammers

Email scammers are attacking our clients, demanding payment.

Their persistent, rude, and sneaky. They've become smarter, making emails and PDFs look like companies they're trying to imitate.

As the scammer's emails to our client went ignored, their frequency and intensity increased.

Our client became concerned and notified our Dedicated Account Manager because the emails and invoices looked exactly like ours. The only difference was one letter in the email domain.

Business Email Compromise Scam

Sneaky!

So, as a precaution, I sent out an email to all our customers, warning them of the issue. One particular customer replied and said they were recently frauded out of $6,000 through a similar situation (not from our company).

If you haven't been on high alert yet, don't wait; now is the time to get more aggressive to protect your company and clients.

Upgrade all your technology security settings.

Duh, right?

But we often get so stuck in the day-to-day, and we miss simple security settings in our technology stacks.

First, whatever platform you use, whether Google Workspace, Microsoft Teams, or any other, increase your security settings.

Sure, some good emails may get stuck in spam, but it's worth it. And when you see scammer emails, make sure to flag them as "phishing" so your software can learn about the attacks.

Then, make it a habit to regularly remind your team not to click on any links or download PDFs from people they don't know.

It's also critically important you alert your bank of any possible issues. Secure your bank accounts with better passwords and have your bank rep add access codes to all your accounts.

Warn your customers about scammers.

As a precaution, we've taken the following steps as a company:

First, we alerted all our customers that our banking details have not changed and to not pay any company requesting payment to a new bank account.

Additionally, we've put alerts on all our accounting team's email signatures and invoices:

"ALERT:

There is an increase in scammers requesting wire transfers to non-affiliated bank accounts.

Please only make wire transfers to the bank account details you have on file, as we haven't changed any of our bank account details.

All official company emails will come from an @ name.com email account."

Put your Account Payable teams on high alert.

This isn't just an issue about customer payment.

We're also the ones being targeted. Some team members get a few scammer emails a day, which end up in spam due to our email security settings requesting payment from vendors.

Notify your accounts payable teams not to make any payments from email demands to new vendor bank accounts.

They should call the vendor using the phone number stored in your ERP or accounting software to confirm payment details when in doubt.

It's also an excellent company policy for your Account Payable procedure always to have multiple controls where one team member schedules payment and your controller or CFO is the only one who can release payment.

Complaining won't solve the problem, but being smarter than the scammer will.

Simply accept this problem, and solve it.

If You've Ever Lost Money Because of A New Supplier, Read This...

If You've Ever Lost Money Because of A New Supplier, Read This...

So, I remember when I needed to buy an INU for an aircraft maintenance project. But, I had a problem…
The d!@$ supplier never answered my call, my email, or my threats. Go figure. It was after we wired them the money. He disappeared. Gone. Vanished. 

10 Ways to Avoid Aircraft Component Scammers

We’ve all been there. You purchase an aircraft component and never receive it. You've been scammed. Or you receive something that’s vastly different than what you ordered. aircraft-component-scammer

In either case you've been duped, tricked, and fooled into paying for something that was a lie.

Money is thrown in the garbage and you’re left having to fix it.

You think you’re alone when this happens. Sadly, you're not alone.

A few years ago we bought an INU for $15,000. The "company" was based out Atlanta. GA.

Before paying we revised the airworthiness certa. Everything checked out. The vendor sent us an AWB.

The next day, nothing showed up and nothing tracked. We called the local FedEx branch and they said they have a guy on video coming back to pick up the part.

We were officially scammed.

Thankfully for me I have a cousin in the FBI and a few friends gave these scammers a nice phone call. Over the next couple weeks we had our check back.

We can't all be so lucky every time.

We’ve also encountered a $30,000 fraudulent wheel assembly purchase out of Turkey. We avoided it using the tips below.

Smell the scammer

[Tweet "If it looks like a scammer and it smells like a scammer then it is a scammer. #avgeek"]

During your first communications you’ll have clear signs of what type of person you’re dealing with. He probably even smells funny through the phone. If you smell a stench, hit the trench.

Reliable partners are completely transparent. You can find them online, they’ll video chat with you and they’ll reply to you during all hours of the day.

Scammers want to keep a low profile and they ALWAYS use aliases. It’s your responsibility to connect the dots. If the dots are easier to connect, you have a legit company.

Disclaimer: just because they’re legit doesn’t make them good. Legit companies can still be horrible to work with.

Ways to avoid being tricked

We’ve been tricked into buying fraudulent aircraft parts numerous times. It's tough to spot especially if you're in a rush.

We’ve also received parts that weren’t what we ordered and getting it resolved was a pain.

Here is a list to help you avoid be scammed. If you’re dealing with someone that resembles these be cautious.

  1. They don’t have a professional website.
  2. They have a standard email address like @gmail or @hotmail.
  3. They don’t give you their phone number, better yet they hide their mobile #.
  4. They write emails unprofessionally.
  5. You request documents and it takes then a couple days to get them to you.
  6. You request a picture of the unit but all you get is one picture fuzzy looking thing.
  7. You request a picture of the id plate and the S/N doesn’t match their paperwork.
  8. You ask if they take credit card and all they take is wire transfer.
  9. You ask them to fill out your QA audit form and they don’t have an internal QA policy and they can’t send you a copy of their QA manual.
  10. You can’t find the person you’re purchasing from on the internet.

These are the best ways to spot a scammer. Professional aircraft component scammers have to keep running. They lurk in the shadows.

When talking with them something will always be suspicious. Keep ears and eyes open.

Better yet, if they resemble some of these points above, run away.