I received an interesting email this week.
The 'marketing development manager' from a company based in Baghdad, wants to order 50 lawnmowers from me.
He sent me an invoice which detailed the specifications required ("Personal Pace Variable Speed Gas Walk Behind Self Propelled Lawn Mower with Blade Stop System Spin-Stop Blade Stop System – Stop the Blade, Not the Engine 22 in. Steel Deck with Recycler Cutting System and Atomic Blades 7.25 ft. lb. Gross Torque 163cc Briggs & Stratton Engine" to be specific!). And he wants 50 of them!
I just need to provide him with my offer in EURO or USD, FOB and my delivery time as well. How lucky am I to have this fall right in my lap?!
However, I suspect the more Sherlock Holmes-ian of you are ahead of me and have already spotted the slight flaw in the marketing development manager's plan here. I don't sell lawnmowers. I just edit a magazine about them.
If we're giving the marketing development manager the benefit of the doubt, something has got slightly lost in translation between here and Iraq and he's got the wrong impression of what it is I actually do.
The other, perhaps more likely explanation, is that someone was trying to scam me. Although what's quite concerning is that rather than the exiled Crown Prince of the Congo wanting me to transfer $$ to his account in exchange for some gold bars, it's quite a targeted scam. The person knows I'm vaguely related to lawnmowers - albeit in my case tangentially.
I think what I received this week would be termed as a phishing email. Phishing is defined as "The fraudulent practice of sending emails purporting to be from reputable companies in order to induce individuals to reveal personal information, such as passwords and credit card numbers." I guess if I'd been intrigued by the potential sale of 50 lawnmowers to Iraq, once contact had been made I would most likely have been asked to reveal further personal information.
We all must be vigilant in our dealings online - perhaps more so as a small business. We at Service Dealer are all too often informed by our readers of scams perpetrated against dealers, most often via phone or by email. Some, like the Iraqi marketing manager, lack a degree of subtlety and would be comical in their naivety if it weren't for the malicious intent behind them. Others are far more sophisticated and can lead blameless individuals down an unfortunate path where they suffer losses of both cash and equipment.
Online security advisers would say that the best defence against falling victim to scams is to be aware. If individuals can be as informed as possible regarding what tactics the criminals are employing, hopefully if you are unlucky enough to come up against one, you'll at least be able to spot it and avoid getting drawn in.
There are many articles online offering advice on how to recognise scams. A useful one which was brought to my attention recently was this one on the Comparitech website which runs down through 70+ common online scams used by cyber criminals and fraudsters. It's a useful, if somewhat depressing, read to familiarise yourself with the various cons currently doing the rounds.
And of course, our community of independent dealer readers should be a vital resource of information. If you have dealt with any recently that you feel our readers should know about, please leave a comment below detailing your experiences.
Or indeed please always feel free to drop me a line if anything occurs throughout the year which you feel would benefit from being brought to the attention of your fellow dealers. Let's look out for each other out there!