You know those weird emails you notice that are from a company you don’t do business with, but attach a PDF of an invoice ? Maybe you don’t see them because your IT settings capture them before they make it to you; however, lately, they are finding their way to more and more people and in businesses, that means often someone opens the PDF and poof, malware is sitting on your system, waiting to capture bank logins and steal your business’s money.
If that happens, your first call should be to your bank: see if you can stop any transfers out of your account. If they’ve already made their way to a Canadian bank, that second bank may put a freeze on the accounts.
Your second call should be to the police, and your third call to your insurer.
Once all of the above “emergency” actions are done, the next call should be to your business litigation lawyer, because if the second bank did freeze the money and the amount is over $100,000.00 then you’re going to need their help to get the money back.
We recently helped a client with the Application before the Court to not only get the money back, but have the second bank provide information the fraudsters used to open the bank accounts with the second bank. All of that helps to recover losses.
This is a niche area of law. If your business lawyer is unfamiliar with it, we’re always here to help.
Inga B. Andriessen, JD, Managing Lawyer