A new scam is afoot you should know about as it is targeting local Hawaii businesses.
The Judiciary has notified the State Procurement Office (SPO) regarding an unknown third party (Perpetrator) impersonating a government employee. The perpetrator is contacting vendors by phone or by email and is issuing fraudulent purchase orders, which appears as if signed by a government employee.
On acceptance of the purchase order, the goods are sent to an unknown third party, typically a forward shipping company. Fortunately the vendor in this instance, determined the purchase order was fraudulent and cancelled the order. The Judiciary has reported this incident to HPD.
Unfortunately these scams are highly effective since we are so technology dependent. The best defense is proper employee cyber security training and having a good degree of skepticism in our business interactions.
Stay safe out there.
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