Incibe assists SME victim of 50,000 euro wholesale fraud

The National Cybersecurity Institute (Incibe) has provided assistance to a small business owner who fell victim to an online scam involving a wholesale perfume purchase from a Chinese website. The entrepreneur reported a loss of 50,000 euros after receiving counterfeit products and missing items that did not match the provided photographs. The supplier's attempt to resolve the issue with a 6,000 euro gift voucher was rejected by the victim.

Incibe advised the business owner to collect evidence, cease communication with the provider, and file a formal complaint with law enforcement. The institute also recommended contacting banking institutions and the Bank of Spain to attempt fund recovery.

Separately, experts from the Spanish Confederation of Business Organizations (CEOE) have highlighted the increasing vulnerability of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to cyberattacks. Alfredo Díez, a cybersecurity coordinator at CEOE, noted that SMEs often lack specialized personnel and resources compared to large corporations. He warned that artificial intelligence is now being used by criminals to create highly personalized and credible scams, making attacks more difficult to detect than previous mass-scale methods.