This electronic scam continues to involve requests for quotations and establishment of a credit account, then a subsequent issue of a purchase order, which purports to come from Macquarie University but is in fact fraudulent.

In some cases, the fraud has involved completing an online request for information/quotation through the supplier’s website.

It appears the scam operates through the ordering of goods which when delivered, are then transferred elsewhere and the supplier does not receive payment for the goods.

Information for suppliers:

We are aware of some common traits or themes of the fraudulent activity and its origin. These are as follows:

• The sender’s email address is not from the University’s email address domain which is @mq.edu.au. Fraudulent emails usually contain either .org or .com
• The email message is poorly written, with misspellings and awkward sentence structure
• The email requesting a quotation or attaching a purchase order will appear to be from a staff member at Macquarie University’s procurement/purchasing teams. Macquarie University has recently embedded water-marking features in its purchase orders to differentiate them from the fraudulent ones issued under its name
• The purchase order will include a delivery address that is typically a warehousing and/or distribution centre that is NOT associated with the University’s current delivery address (Unit 2, Warehouse C, 68 Waterloo Road, Macquarie Park NSW 2113 Australia)
• The phone number in the email will not include the University’s current prefix which is ’61 2 9850’

If you suspect fraud in any way please contact your local law enforcement agency.

If you receive an e-mail fitting this description please forward us a copy to poscam@mq.edu.au.

Macquarie University values its relationship with its suppliers and greatly appreciates your cooperation in reporting instances of suspected fraud. We sincerely apologise for any inconvenience this fraudulent activity may have caused.