Credit Card Fraud Alert
December 13, 2018
A Corporate Card cardholder was recently the victim of an Executive Impersonation scam. This scam involves a fraudulent email pretending to be the executive to an individual that can provide valuable information or initiate payments. The email typically directs the targeted person to purchase gift cards or initiate wire transfer requests or checks.
Here are some tips to help protect you and Northwestern from this type of scam:
- Carefully scrutinize all emails.
- Be wary of irregular emails that are send from senior executives, as they are used to trick employees into acting with urgency.
- Review emails that request information/funds to determine if they are out of the ordinary. There are a few red flags you can look out for:
- The email address contains a suspicious domain
- The sender name is vague, the content contains poor grammar or includes an irregular link
- If a caller claims to be an executive working for your organization, ask them politely for their internal phone number and say you’ll call them back.
Please contact the Corporate Card office if you receive any suspicious emails or phone calls.