Scam: AIBU to think we should not be fully liable?

[whatajobbeingsamumis30]

So this is super crap but basically we had a scam done on us, we used a roofing company and received an copy of an invoice previously received detailing different bank details (it was from an email slightly different company.com v companyltd.com) - we had a dialogue by email and then we paid. It came to light a few weeks later. This is for a few thousands pounds. The roofing company says we still owe them the money which I understand however this scam happened to another of their clients who picked up on it and didn't pay - should they not have warned us their network was now at risk? The police have said they will not investigate (why do I pay taxes?!?) and the bank we paid are taking no responsibly (surely they know who is the scammer). AIBU to think that we should not pay full balance to roofing company? It is because there system was not secure that this has happened?

A mass mailing is unlikely given that OP received an exact copy of the invoice apart from the bank details. This would presumably give the physical address, a description of works done and amount owing.

Sorry - scrub that - if it was an exact copy with just bank details changed them their systems have been compromised or its an inside job. In the latter case the bod may not have been able to set up an untraceable bank account - so yes pressure on the bank

Frankie - it's a fairly common (and scary) scam. Unlikely to be an inside job but given that another customer of the same company has been impacted most likely to be a breach of the contractor's security not the OP. Maybe the scammers got lucky with the same company twice and targeted the recipients but someone pointed out above, far less effort to target the creditor in these circumstances.

Oh yeah. I missed the exact copy part too.

oh come on, its an inside job surely? go back to the police and insist they listen, that it has happened repeatedly, using exact same invoice with just payment details altered.

you are still going to have to pay though I would think :(
have the roofing co agreed to warn other customers their email is insecure?

The key thing here is whether the roofing company knew their email had been compromised and what action they took to resolve it.

If they did know and failed to take action then I would think they were negligent which means they have some liability.

If they did not know or there wasn't enough time to tell people then their liability would be limited.

What timescales are we talking here? Both between the roofer knowing about a problem and it happening to you and between you and/or the roofer knowing about a problem with the payment and you contacting the banks?

Paintingbynumbers - as many many posters have said, this is a well known scam especially with solicitors, why do you think it's the roofers? If you Google you'll find lots of instances and information, it's been covered on consumer programmes more than once and many sensible people have been caught out.

Here's one similar one.

www.theguardian.com/money/2016/mar/04/fraud-scam-email-barclays-lloyds

I think its an inside job because they are doing fuck all about the breach in their security that means repeated customers are getting faked up copy invoices. how convenient for them.

and they are roofers

I've just googled how this type of fraud works, and the first article (in The Sun) said it's can be either the the customer or supplier PC that has been hacked, so the criminal can see all emails. In one of their examples it was the suppliers PC that had been hacked, the mere fact it was their PC rather than the customer didn't make any difference, the customer still had to pay again. However if a second customer who could have been warned is hacked, surely the supplier should have some liability for not warning them?

Unless you are the roofers Paintingbynumbers how do you know what they are or aren't doing about the breach?

You can obviously tell they are guilty because of a stereotype rather than conclude that they have fallen victim to a common scam.

Of all the trades I've ever employed, Roofers have by far the highest incidence of bent behaviour. I've had:
Lying about original quote to try and screw some more out of me;
Turning up to do a job and expecting to borrow tools from me to complete said job;
Another lot trying to overcharge by 2x;
Another doing such shoddy slapdash work that a new and expensive roof leaked after only 1 week; it then turned out they had a fake business address and were a phoenix company.

I could go on.

Why would you not suspect the Roofers?? Nice as pie were they??

Google their accounts with Companies House. Have they filed on time? Amy directors been struck off? Any unusual charges against the company?