Right now, the FBI is concerned with business email compromise, or BEC, which involves targeting an employee with access to their company’s financial infrastructure and duping them into moving money to the scammers.

FBI agent Michael Sohn of the Los Angeles Cyber Division told Wired, “[w]hen a small business gets scammed out of $200,000 or $500,00 they’re just done, they’re no longer in business.”

A similar strategy called vendor email compromise, or VEC, is also on the rise. In a typical scenario, a fraudster will create an invoice that looks identical to the real vendor’s, save for the bank account information. When the company issues payment, it once again ends up in the scammer’s account.

Juniper Research, which forecasts trends in digital technology, estimates business losses stemming from cybercrime hit $3 trillion worldwide in 2019 to over $5 trillion in 2024, an average annual growth of 11%. No one is safe from the fallout. 

By the way, the Nigerian prince scam is still fooling people. Here’s why. Also known as the 419 fraud, the Nigerian prince is a variation on the centuries-old Spanish prisoner swindle, an advance-fee scam that emerged after the French Revolution, where people sent handwritten letters soliciting help for a (non-existent) nobleman falsely imprisoned. While it’s closely associated with the early internet, the Nigerian prince first went global in the 1980s when West African fraudsters began snail-mailing scam letters around the world. Today, it seems more like a punchline than a real threat, but the Nigerian prince still gets paid: in 2018, the con brought in more than $700,000 from Americans alone.

That’s why we built Gobbill, to protect businesses from fake invoices and scams. Get protected with our accounts payable fraud protection platform. https://gobbill.com

Gobbill expects to debut and showcase its “Know Your Biller™” fraud detection technology at prestigious UK investment events such as this year’s EIE20 driven by what the UK Financial Conduct Authority calls an “epidemic” of 3.8 million fraud cases reported in 2019.

Sources:

Popular Science – The Nigerian prince scam is still fooling people. Here’s why. 5th March 2020

https://www.popsci.com/story/technology/nigerian-prince-scam-social-engineering/

Juniper Research Hampshire, UK – 27th August 2019

https://www.juniperresearch.com/press/press-releases/business-losses-cybercrime-data-breaches

Laneways by LaunchVic featured Gobbill’s data stewardship policy in a recent article.

Toeing the line of profit-making and protecting customer data is a difficult tightrope for any startup, but Gobbill has made it their mission to put people first, writes Ruth Thomas

Protecting our consumers’ and our own data within Gobbill is a very important to us. We’ve developed everything on-shore in Australia and we process and support our customers in Australia as well. As we look to expand into new territories, the same ethos will remain to up hold data sovereignty and to employ locally benefiting surrounding communities.

The article contains a number of tips for other startups.

Read more at Laneways.

Five people have been arrested and luxury cars seized in western Sydney over an organised criminal syndicate suspected of defrauding the National Disability Insurance Scheme of millions of dollars.

It will be alleged the syndicate controlled three NDIS providers that fraudulently claimed $1.1 million in NDIS payments from more than 70 people on disability plans or those managing their affairs.

Investigations are ongoing, with more than 100 other potential victims identified in connection to the three entities allegedly controlled by the syndicate.

Gobbill is fighting back and is currently piloting a solution to make payments easier and safer for NDIS self-managed participants and plan managers. See https://gobbill.com/ndis

Read more The Australian

Read more ABC News

It’s great to save money. That’s why pay-on-time discounts have grown in popularity among us in recent years, but are these discounts on our energy bills really all they crack up to be? Gobbill is a bill payment service for households and small businesses. It scans bills for fraud, pays the energy bill on-time and calculates the actual discount % for users. Recently Gobbill conducted a study of bills (for a year ending 31 Jan 2019) and compared the discounts to what energy companies advertise.

Diagram 1.0: Electricity bill in Gobbill

What’s the deal with pay-on-time discounts?

A recent Canstar Blue article “Pay on Time Energy Discounts Explained” mentioned that you can generally expect to see offers ranging from 10% to 30%, or even more in some cases. Pay on time discounts of up to 47% have been seen across Australia in the past.

Pay-on-time discounts reward you by discounting your energy bills by a set amount every month if you pay before the due date. However, conditions of your discounts can vary significantly depending on the provider and plan you choose.  Understanding your energy bill and the conditions attached to your discount can be complicated, and it can be even trickier to compare it with other available offers to find a better deal.

What is driving pay-on-time discounts? Last year, the ACCC found that pay-on-time ‘discounts’ have emerged in response to attempts by government regulations to constrain late payment fees. Pay-on-time energy discounts could be on the chopping block because it is tricky and confusing reported by Choice.com.au

What’s the catch?

Pay-on-time discounts seem like a great idea to save more cash but these ‘discounts’ on your energy bills can sometimes end up costing you more if you don’t manage to meet these conditions.

Customers also tend to forget that most of these discounts are only valid for 12 or 24 months from the commencement date of their plan. Without renewing these plans, you’ll be required to pay the full, non-discounted price of your energy bill.

Gobbill analysed a number of bills over the last year and found that some energy providers aren’t giving the discounts promised in their headlines. Gobbill is able to calculate the true discount you receive on your bill when you send your bill into Gobbill for payment.

You’ll be surprised what we found.

Gobbill found discrepancies between discounts advertised by energy providers and the actual discount applied to energy bills from a sample of several hundred Victorian bills over the last year. Our data suggests that certain energy customers may not be getting what they expected from the advertised headline discounts.

On top of that, the ACCC reported that energy retailers set their discounts with reference to their own set prices, making it complicated to compare headline discounts between energy providers. As a result, consumers tend to make decisions based on simple indicators, such as headline discounts. However, they may be signing up to exclusions and conditions that deliver a lower saving that other providers.

In some cases, Gobbill found that energy providers were promising discounts as high as 33% but only giving 23% off energy bills. If that was my electricity bill, I would be paying an extra $241.68 every year on my electricity bill alone.

Diagram 2.0: Electricity discounts expected vs. actual

(more…)

Finding clever ways to accomplish more in a time-pressed business day can be the difference between getting through that endless list of tasks, or not.

Using Gobbill to automate payments is one way.

Co-founders Quentin Marsh and Shendon Ewans originally came up with the idea for Gobbill in a local pub. The initial concept was to help people pay bills on time.

However, when Shendon’s father fell victim to an email scam and lost his savings, Shendon and his brother Simon (a software engineer with Gobbill) took action. Email scams are rapidly increasing across Australia and around the world. Gobbill has now built in extra fraud protection and offers a solution for those looking to protect themselves from potential email scams.

Read the Sydney Morning Herald article.

Read The Age article.

Gobbill interviews travel expert Susie Sheldrick who works in tourism about her tips and tricks to make travelling a breeze.

You travel all the time for work. How do you manage being away so often and keeping up with friends at home? Do you just use your mobile to keep in contact?

Social media makes it easier. I have friends around the country as well as the world, so it is super easy to stay in contact on social media, especially if most people are on the one platform. Smart phones help as well. All the info I need is stored or accessible through my phone. I love how it is all cloud based these days as well, so if something happens to my phone I can log onto another device and get what I need.

What’s the best way you make the most of your time while travelling?

Do some research but keep plans flexible. It is good to know what the main things are you want to see and do. But the best experiences are always the ones that happen spontaneously that no amount of research and planning can facilitate.

I like to have an idea of where I am visiting, what the local food is, what attractions I want to see and any local quirks to be aware of like siestas…then ask a local, get exploring and let the adventure unfold.

If I am travelling for work I try to make the most of the contacts I have for work. Most people love talking about their city, favourite foods and places. You get the insider tips and it also helps develop that relationship.

What can’t you travel without?

Ohh. Good question. I am literally writing this on my phone mid flight so I suppose a smart phone these days… but I do remember the days of travelling without one so a better answer would be scarf (which I am wearing because I always find flights chilly!)

Scarfs are too versatile not to bring. I’ve used them in all types of destinations. I always have a light cloth one handy that is a decent size so that it can be used for everything. They can also pack up small and light so they are never an inconvenience. Over the years I have used a scarf as:

• Clothing
• Blanket especially if there is aircon
• Makeshift carry thing
• Towel
• Picnic rug
• Pillow
• Pillow case (regrettable hostel)
• Eye mask
• Head covering for sacred places

I also always pack swimmers. It might be a little optimistic, a swimsuit. You never know when a pair of swimmers will come in handy.

Can you give our users some travel advice?

Don’t underestimate how far a smile and a bit of kindness can go. It transcends language and can get you far in a lot of places.

How do you manage other currencies overseas? Use a travel card?

I use a credit card with no international transaction or conversion fees for most things, then I just withdraw from my regular eftpos card when I need cash. I found currency cards don’t convert the cash at a good enough rate to be worth the hassle, especially if you aren’t using a major currency ie heading to a country that uses a currency that you can’t convert to directly like Norwegian Krones. And avoid currency exhange as much as possible. Most airports have an atm you can withdraw cash from as soon as you land.

It helps to do some research about the money norms in the location you are visiting. Not everywhere is as credit card friendly as Australia, even places that you would expect. I got caught out in Paris one time thinking all cabs accepted cards.

How do you keep up with bills back home while you’re travelling?

Gobbill!

Also a little bit pf planning. Not too many bills come out of the blue or a surprising amount, so it is possible to plan and budget.

Anything else you want to include?

Travel often!

Consumers are using more direct debits than ever. But with 1 in 3 Australians experiencing financial stress, direct debits can be risky.

While some providers make pausing a subscription easy, many providers and banks make cancelling direct debit excessively difficult.

The Bank Code Compliance Monitoring Committee published a report in October 2017 stating that when consumers asked cancel direct debits, 54% of bank staff gave the wrong advice to consumers, stating that consumers had to contact billers directly. This is still unacceptably high since the previous report. Seven banks told the committee they collectively received more than 15,500 direct debit cancellation requests a month.

Source:

Improving banks’ compliance with direct debit cancellation obligations  October 2017, Banking Code Compliance Monitoring Committee

Banks are failing in their obligations to cancel direct debits 12 Nov 2017, Caitlin Fitzsimmons The Age

Source: Tom Cowie, The Age.  Photo: Jason South

A former university finance lecturer who pursued Westpac for $1000 in compensation after the bank’s ATM ate his credit card.

Dr Andrew Leung, a former finance lecturer and actuary, argues that banks do nothing for their ATM service.

“Essentially the machine shut down, it froze, went blank and then switched off. It started back up after five minutes like nothing had happened. I didn’t get the cash, I didn’t get the card.”

The Bendigo Bank customer had to rearrange his direct debits when insurance companies began sending letters telling him that his payments were overdue and his polices were in danger of being suspended. Read more at The Age.

You never know when an ATM will gobble your card.