Those in the superyacht industry who use e mail in the course of their everyday life need always to be vigilant now that a new scam has been detected, ever more so.
The database at Boat International Media has become the victim of a phishing scam and a virus infected e mails is being distributed in their name without their consent.
Many in the industry have already received the innocuous looking message and it is only when the recipient carefully looks at the senders address that the possibility of the e mail being fraudulent becomes apparent
The e mail purports to have been sent by Louis Coletti Boat International’s Associate Publisher whose offices are in New York.
But the sender of the e mail is invoicepaymentoutstanding@gmail.com
It is only if the recipient clicks on the zip file purporting to be an invoice dated for this month, that the damage to the recipients computer will begin
Boat International says it is investigating emails sent out demanding payment for invoices and is urging people not to open the emails, and to report any queries about them or payment to the BI commercial team.
This is what the phishing e mail says:
Dear Customer,
Kindly view the invoice for September and arrange payment as soon as possible to avoid your listing being removed from our site
Thanks and best,
Louis
September Invoice.zip
LOUIS COLETTI
Associate Publisher Luxury Advertising
The Superyacht Industry’s Leading Global Media Group
Publishing | Digital | Events
3 Columbus Circle 15th Floor NYC NY 10019
T: 917 847 1944
E: louis.coletti@boatinternationalmedia.com
www.boatinternationalmedia.com
Confirming that Mr Coletti does in fact work from New York for them a spokesman for the publisher told us, “It’s an isolated incident and our IT department are sorting it out.”