Airline falls for phishing scam
Japan Airlines has been stung for US$3.4 million in an aircraft leasing phishing scam.
It received emails earlier this year purportedly from a financial services firm which handles its aircraft leasing fees and commissions.
JAL was asked to pay the fees into a Hong Kong bank instead of the usual US bank account as for previous payments.
The unknown fraudsters somehow managed to hijack the financial firm’s email account and the scam only came to light when the firm demanded payment later in October.
JAL has reported it to Japanese police and may take disciplinary action again employees for not sufficiently verifying the emails.
JAL also made two payments on August 27 and September 7, worth 24 million yen, for freight services to its US based logistics partner which also turned out to be a scam.
The FBI has also joined the investigation.
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Editor for TravelMole North America and Asia pacific regions. Ray is a highly experienced (15+ years) skilled journalist and editor predominantly in travel, hospitality and lifestyle working with a huge number of major market-leading brands. He has also cover in-depth news, interviews and features in general business, finance, tech and geopolitical issues for a select few major news outlets and publishers.
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