A targeted email attack known as 'whaling” is causing significant financial losses to businesses, including those in the Western Bay of Plenty.

Tauranga Police Detective Senior Sergeant Greg Turner says three Western Bay businesses have been targeted with 'significant sums of money being transferred as a result to off shore bank accounts”.

Detective Senior Sergeant Greg Turner says an email scam has targeted Western Bay of Plenty businesses. Photo: File.

'Persons responsible for account payments have received what appear to be authentic emails from company managers requesting funds be transferred to off shore bank accounts on behalf of company clients,” explains Greg.

The Department of Internal Affairs describes the latest 'whaling” scam as a phishing type scam which targets high level executives.

'Since the beginning of September, five companies have reported to Internal Affairs that they have recently experienced this type of attack, although the department is aware of earlier campaigns,” adds Greg.

'The email addresses are spoofed to appear as though the messages are being sent from a company's Chief Executive Officer, Managing Director, or similar, and are sent to the Chief Financial Officer, Senior Accountant or similar, urgently requesting a funds transfer,” says the DIA.

'The amount of money to be transferred appears to vary across companies, and the reports sent to Internal Affairs show transfer requests ranging from $24,500 to $89,400.

'In most of the reported cases the CFO or Accountant has become suspicious before the funds were actually transferred.”

The email correspondence generally begins with a simple email query from the 'CEO” to the CFO asking if they're available, before progressing to request an urgent funds transfer.They often state that they have been sent from an iPhone, iPad or similar.

This may be an attempt to distract the recipient from the fact that the CEO's normal email signature is not featured in the message.

If you have received an electronic message which you believe may be an attempt at a whaling attack, report it to Internal Affairs by forwarding it to: scam@reportspam.co.nz.

If you have already transferred funds as a result of a whaling attack, contact your bank and inform them of the situation. The fraudulent transaction should also be reported to the New Zealand Police.