Earlier this week our bank Nat West phoned us to say a payment had arrived for £58,400 which we knew nothing about and they we concerned it could be a scam.
A few days before the call from the bank a company called ARIX GENERAL TRADING Co. had contacted us to purchase some software for £1,500. We supplied them with a Pro Forma Invoice for this amount and gave them details of our bank account as we wanted payment before we delivered the order.
Not long after the call from the bank Mr Bruno Alves of Arix General Trading Co.emailed us and told us there as a mistake with the payment plus he followed it up with a phone call. The email address was [email protected], I don’t like email addresses of companies from gmail or Yahoo as I am always suspicious.
I understand from the bank the nature of the scam is for Arix General Trading to greatly overpay for something they order. They then ask for the balance of the funds to be transferred back to them by a bank transfer. In the mean time they cancel the cheque and you are left with a massive loss, in our case it would have been £56,900.
We also understand they target this time of year as staff could have gone out on a Christmas Party and will not be so alert to spot this.
Really glad we bank with company which is alert to scams.