Two waste and recycling firms have issued warnings to clients and suppliers after it was discovered that fraudulent emails had been sent out on their behalf.
Both waste management firm SITA UK and Lincolnshire-based plastics recycler ECO Plastics have told clients to exercise caution after it had emerged that they had been the target of email scams.
SITAs warning, issued last week (May 23), comes after the company had been alerted that a suspicious email, which appeared to originate from an authorised company email address, had been sent to a number of recipients and included an attached zip file containing harmful software.
The Berkshire-based company has since sought to reassure its clients that its IT security had not been compromised, but warned against opening any zip file attachments purporting to have been sent from a sita.co.uk address.
In a statement, it said: At SITA UK, we do not send zip files in any of our corporate email communications, so we urge anyone who has received this type of file not to open it and to delete it immediately.
We have reported the incident to the relevant authorities and we are working to trace the origin of this malicious email and establish the extent of its circulation. We take this type of crime very seriously and will be taking every measure we can to stop those responsible.
‘This has been happening to ourselves and a number of others with a big presence in the market. They will contact firms to say that they have boxes of material at a very good price typically about half of the usual selling price.’
Duncan Oakes, ECO Plastics
ECO Plastics
Elsewhere in the waste sector, plastic bottle reprocessing firm ECO Plastics has told clients and suppliers to check all correspondence purporting to have been sent on behalf of the company.
The warning was issued after an individual had contacted firms overseas posing as a representative of ECO Plastics, and had proceeded to arrange deals with clients for the supply of material which were then not fulfilled.
However, unlike the SITA case, the emails had been sent from an external address not used by the company.
Speaking to letsrecycle.com, ECO Plastics sales director Duncan Oakes, said: This has been happening to ourselves and a number of others with a big presence in the market. They will contact firms to say that they have boxes of material at a very good price typically about half of the usual selling price.
Customers overseas will then call us up to chase an order, and we have never heard of them. They will then send us a load of paperwork that has been sent out on our behalf.
Mr Oakes said that incidents such as these had been occurring several times a month and that the company had informed the Police, but had been told that due to a lack of physical evidence, it could do nothing to intervene. The company has since contacted all of its regular clients to warn them over the fraud risk.
Waste management firm Viridor issued a similar warning in November 2013, after it had been reported that an individual or group of individual claiming to work for the company had been emailing potential recyclate buyers on the companys behalf.
The firm urged customers to be mindful of any contact they receive, adding any genuine emails from the company will end with @viridor.co.uk.
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