Gone phishing: Business owner almost scammed by fake Covid-19 tender

[PietMossie]

AMABHUNGANE: SANITISER SCAM, PART 1: Gone phishing: Business owner almost scammed by fake Covid-19 tender

Fraudsters claiming to be health department officials are peddling tenders for a non-existent sanitiser machine.

www.dailymaverick.co.za

Gone phishing: Business owner almost scammed by fake Covid-19 tender

Fraudsters claiming to be health department officials are peddling tenders for a non-existent sanitiser machine.

Bogus government tenders appear to be targeted at businesses listed on the national Treasury’s Central Supplier Database (CSD) because of a suspected leak within the publicly inaccessible database.

This database is, as it claims, a “single source of key supplier information” for organs of state. Businesses register on the CSD and can then be considered for government contracts.

One business owner, who spoke to amaBhungane on condition of anonymity, explained that she only began to receive these bogus tenders when she applied to list her company on the database. She also fell for one such tender.

On 8 April 2020, the Department of Health sent out an email to businesses about a new tender for industrial sanitiser machines – specifically, for the DX610M model.

Prospective suppliers had six days to respond to the bid, which closed on 14 April.

Typically, when responding to a tender, there should be sufficient generic information accompanying the description of the tender, so that individual businesses can meet almost all the requirements with their own products – in this case, a sanitiser machine.

... much more ...

 

[Tribs]

AMABHUNGANE: SANITISER SCAM, PART 1: Gone phishing: Business owner almost scammed by fake Covid-19 tender

Fraudsters claiming to be health department officials are peddling tenders for a non-existent sanitiser machine.

www.dailymaverick.co.za

Gone phishing: Business owner almost scammed by fake Covid-19 tender

Fraudsters claiming to be health department officials are peddling tenders for a non-existent sanitiser machine.

Bogus government tenders appear to be targeted at businesses listed on the national Treasury’s Central Supplier Database (CSD) because of a suspected leak within the publicly inaccessible database.

This database is, as it claims, a “single source of key supplier information” for organs of state. Businesses register on the CSD and can then be considered for government contracts.

One business owner, who spoke to amaBhungane on condition of anonymity, explained that she only began to receive these bogus tenders when she applied to list her company on the database. She also fell for one such tender.

On 8 April 2020, the Department of Health sent out an email to businesses about a new tender for industrial sanitiser machines – specifically, for the DX610M model.

Prospective suppliers had six days to respond to the bid, which closed on 14 April.

Typically, when responding to a tender, there should be sufficient generic information accompanying the description of the tender, so that individual businesses can meet almost all the requirements with their own products – in this case, a sanitiser machine.

... much more ...

I got that tender opportunity. We are on the database because we supply one of the government departments. I get tons of tenders that look fishy. I say that because they will always be in an industry we do not support - have very little detail in and have an html or pdf file attached. So we got the sanitizer one - but not being in the sort of industry that can apply - I could tell it was off. But they were much smarter with the email. A lot more information than usual. They are learning.

 

[ForceFate_]

A common scam actually. They tend to target small players and pressure them into completing the transaction.