A number of brokers and dealers have recently received emails from what appears to be the Dominion Marine Media (DMM) accounts team, attaching an invoice or requesting an unusual payment. These emails can often appear with the address ……[email protected] or ……[email protected] in the FROM field, masking the actual address that the email has come from. They have a zip file attached. If you have received an email like this, please treat it as a phishing email and delete it immediately.

What is phishing?
Over half of all internet users get at least one phishing email per day. A phishing email is one fraudulently designed to impersonate people you already know, thus increasing the chances of you opening it. This is to get you to click on a link to a spam website, or make a payment, or corrupt your computer.

How can you spot a phishing email?
Phishing emails tend to contain common themes. These include:

• spelling errors, eg. YatchWorld as opposed to YachtWorld
• links to websites you may not normally use
• requests to download unusual attachments or files
• demands to send money to new or unnamed bank accounts

What can be done to minimise phishing attacks?
DMM uses Google’s Enterprise Gmail system for all email, because of its powerful safeguarding features. These identify and isolate dangerous emails, including spam and phishing emails. There are numerous security products and blockers on the market too, so talk to your IT supplier about which solution works best for you.

Phishing emails you may have received from a DMM email address are, of course, not from DMM. If emails like this make it through to your inbox, personal vigilance is the final way to ensure you are not affected. A legitimate accounts email from DMM will always be personalised (ie. Dear Mike as opposed to Dear Customer), and it will only ever contain a PDF as an attachment.

Because of the increased frequency of phishing attacks, DMM is currently researching a different way of communicating accounting information to you. Details of this will be announced shortly via this blog, and via direct personalised email to you. If you have any questions before then, or wish to check the validity of an email you have received, please call your DMM rep today.

Written by Alastair Walton
8th November 2015