Folks,
As you all know the internet is rife with nefarious activities. Those of us who book hunts to Africa and wire money to outfitters need to take a precautionary step. That is to phone the outfitter and speak directly to the person in charge and re-verify the wiring instructions.
Hackers have been able to access e-mail accounts and send messages to clients notifying them that the outfitter's bank account has been changed and please wire to another account. This has resulted in several instances I am personally aware of, and nearly happened to me back in August. If I had not called, the outfitter would not have received the funds and I would not have been able to hunt.
Please be double careful when wiring funds.

That is scary. Thanks for this Tim!

Tim,

One of my operators was hacked and some funds actually were transferred to the hacker's account. The money is straightened out but lots of correspondence was lost causing a huge mess for clients and the operator.

Mark

Scams such as this are rife now with emails being hacked. Particularly important is to speak by phone to the person you are wiring money to as when email accounts are hacked the hackers divert email responses to their own account so the original outfitter doesn't even know that you have questioned anything.

I would love to use those bloody hackers as hyaena bait!

The hyaenas were picking the bones right in front of our camp, 50 meters away, while we are watching.

Just imagine, getting one of those hackers stripped naked, covered from head to toe in buffalo gut content, and putting a fresh buffalo ripcage around his head!

I could think of a lot of politicians that would also be great candidates as well! Maybe a few bunny huggers or gun control advocates too. Just give them a camera or their iphone. . . . . . . No guns or knives allowed.

quote:

Originally posted by Saeed:
I would love to use those bloody hackers as hyaena bait!

The hyaenas were picking the bones right in front of our camp, 50 meters away, while we are watching.

Just imagine, getting one of those hackers stripped naked, covered from head to toe in buffalo gut content, and putting a fresh buffalo ripcage around his head!

One of the things I do is help companies protect intellectual property and prevent corporate espionage.
Tim's advice is pretty good concerning verifying information by phone. I would go a step further and not send any sensitive account information by email in the first place. However, if phone contact is too difficult for whatever reason, sending the information in a password protected document (or a pw protected WinZip file) is a step up from no security.