Outstanding Debt

How the scam works:

The Outstanding Debt/Invoice Scam comes as an e-mail and requires you to pay a debt or balance payment that you owe a specific business provider. An invoice is attached.

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The scammers use well-known names of businesses that people purchase product from (such as Amazon, eBay, Craigslist, etc). They threaten you with legal action if you don’t pay within the next 24 hours and provide you with a link where you are supposed to make your online payment by adding your credit card number or bank account.

Here is an example of a scam email that is in circulation nowadays (photo) with the subject title "Last letter before commencing legal action":

"We are writing to you about fact, despite previous reminders, there remains an outstanding amount of $216.12 in respect of the invoice(s) contained in this email . This was due for payment on March 11, 2016. Our credit terms stipulate full payment within 3 days and this amount is now 14 days overdue.The total amount due from you is therefore $374.43

If the full amount of the sum outstanding, as set above, is not paid within 7 days of the date of this email, we will have to begin legal action, without warning, for a court order requiring payment. We may also commence insolvency proceedings. Legal proceedings may Itake effect on any credit rating. The costs of legal proceedings and any other amounts which the court orders must also be paid in addition to the debt.

This letter is being sent to you according to the Practice Direction on Pre-Action Conduct (the PDPAC) contained in the Civil Procedure Rules, The court has the power to sanction your continuing decline to respond.

To view the the original invoice please follow link.

[malicious link included]

Yours faithfully, Jacqueline McKee"

In a different variation of the scam, the crook claim you need to pay a company called GlorySky. The subject of the email is "Order Confirmation with Glorysky". They even become aggresive and attach an "invoice". Here is the content of the email:

Dear Sirs,

It is becoming very frustrating because everytime I send you the order confirmation, it takes more than 5 mails before respond! I am sending this PO again in case you did not get it few days ago, If we keep having this problem, we may have to look for another means of communication.

Please advise the receipt of this e-mail.

Kind regards,

Sara Coleman"

The invoice comes as a malicious Zip. file, which will infect your computer. So don't open it.

How to avoid:

Most people don’t fall for this scam anymore, but unfortunately there are still enough that do to keep the scammers in business. Check where the e-mail has come from, and if you think it might be genuine check through your accounts with the business and do the math. Never open an attachment from an unknown sender.

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