Scams & money

Not every attack involves hacking. Many of the most costly ones simply persuade you to send money yourself: a "bank fraud team" telling you to move funds to a "safe account", a supplier emailing new bank details for an invoice, a romance that turns into requests for help, or an investment with returns that no honest product can offer.

These scams share a structure. They build trust or panic, isolate you from people who might question it ("do not tell the bank, they may be involved"), and then ask for an irreversible payment: a bank transfer, gift cards, cryptocurrency, or cash to a courier. The irreversibility is the point. No genuine institution asks for payment in gift cards, and no genuine bank asks you to move money to protect it.

For small organisations, the version to know is business email compromise: a criminal impersonates a boss or a supplier and requests a payment or a change of bank details. A single phone call to a known number defeats it almost every time.