Recent attempts by fraudsters have been made to collect money from users of IATA products and services.

Unfortunately even large, sophisticated companies have been victims of such attempts and transferred substantial amounts to bank accounts designated by the fraudsters, after having been fooled by the false correspondence.

IATA is communicating with as many members of the air transport industry as possible to share valuable information on how to detect such fraudulent email attempts in order to help prevent individuals from becoming victims.

As part of our ongoing awareness campaign to protect our industry partners, attached is a document entitled "Warning - Fraudulent Emails" which contains commonly used email fraud techniques, IATA's communication practices, and what you can do to better protect your organization.

Key points include:

1. The fraudsters contact users under false names, sometimes using similar or identical names as those of IATA officials, seeking payment for products or services and/or claiming payments for outstanding amounts due.
2. The fraudsters use an email address resembling IATA email addresses but using different host servers such as "gmail".
3. The fraudsters may also use forged documents bearing the IATA logo or include links in the email to a spoofed (fake) website.
4. IATA communications will always come from an "iata.org" email address accompanied by a digital signature.
5. Ensure that your systems allow you to read emails with digital signatures.
6. An authentic IATA invoice will never request payment into a non-IATA bank account.
7. Always be wary of requests to update bank account information.
8. Whenever in doubt as to the authenticity of communications purporting to be from IATA requesting payment, please do not respond to the email and kindly notify IATA immediately at information.security@iata.org

Please take a moment to review this information carefully and share it with colleagues in your company, particularly those that are responsible for settling supplier invoices.

Regards

Stephane Parrenin
Cargo Service Manager - StB representative

International Air Transport Association (IATA)
Suite 401, level 4, 83 York Street, Sydney NSW 2000 Australia
T 61 2 9249 6812 F 61 2 9299 6416 M 61 419 862525