- Mar 28, 2023
- 513
- 1,044
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"Mr_Palmer, post: 13405184, member: 4960552"]
Please explain what is nonsensical, ludicrous and ridiculous about the phishing scam:
-Darren is tempted by customized email sent to him enticing him to click on a link for his toy train hobby.
-Darren, not being the most tech savvy person and not having good security on his company network, clicks on the link and downloads sophisticated spyware that enables perpetrator access to his system as an administrator (i.e. connect wise).
-Perpetuator studies Darren’s email history to find his frequent customers.
-Perpetuator, acting as Darren as imposter, reaches out to customers asking them to send payment to a new account and to pay now because he needs the money.
-Some customers send payment to new account because Darren’s email looks legit.
-Once Daren discovers this plot, there’s nothing he can do because the fraud account is offshore and has been closed, and since he dropped the ball on getting an insurance policy specific to cyber security that covers him in situations like this, he’s fucked. Nope, this plot thread works well especially if the targeted company is small. It's an account hijack and by the looks of it targeting accounts receivable. Your scammer would first target those accounts that pay electronically--just send new bank routing instructions to the vendor. Further most business have set times they pay their bills mostly toward the end of the month where the money can draw interest from their banks. Second, if the targeted account pays via mail (not that common in today's world), the scammer will know who in that vendor's company handles accounts payable from invoices and email--but with some companies they often contract that out with accounting firms... in either case having access to David's company emails so the scammer knows whom to email or even call (the scammer would just say they are new employee in David's company handling receivables, or mimic the person responsible).
The whole scamming situation would be made far worst if David or his father doesn't do the books on a daily basis. And if David's company uses QuickBooks where the scammer can doctor the accounts to look like business as normal with fraudulent entries would allow the disaster to go on for weeks before being detected.
Now if David's company uses credit cards for most transactions, the company would be fine... but even with VISA and MasterCard debit card accounts tied to the company's bank accounts that would be a disaster. Worst if David's company is old school and uses checks... bank routing number and account number and Ka-Puff! Problem is credit cards charge an interest rate and fee where debit cards act as checks and has a transaction fee.
If this isn’t realistic please point out why, because I believe this is fairly common, especially when businesses like Darren’s fail to address cyber protection. If I’m completely wrong I’m willing to relook at this scenario in the story because I don’t want to ruin the reader’s immersion by something nonsensical. How many players own a business and knows these things or work in financial services? Sure, your game could be all about the hack and would need a lot more details, but it's not. You have a simple enough plausible problem that pushes forward the story's main plots.
I’ll point out, it’s not a major plot point in the story. It’s just one additional layer of shit that happens at the wrong time to enable Kendra’s plot. Inspired by your story, I wrote for another fan on F95 how Grant and Anna's dinner date would go where Grant would win back Anna's trust. Basically, it revolved around an over simplified bunch of technobabble of estate and trusts Grant used to enrich himself and how he would use it to lure back Anna. As well as a spirited rendition of how much a scumbag Grant is while keeping a pleasant face on. The financial world and its inner workings are one of my careers.
