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The Australian Bankers' Association says exporters need to look out for emails from Ghana and Nigeria which contain orders for goods.
David Bell from the Bankers Association says the scam works with the fraudulent company transferring money to an Australian company using a credit card.
"The Australian company then reimburses that fraudulent company using wire transfer," he said.
"The fraudulent overseas company then cancels their credit card payment leaving the Australian company out of pocket."
Mr Bell says businesses need to be careful.
They should be very cautious about responding to any instructions via email, especially from an overseas company," he said.
"Know your customer and make sure that before you pay any money, there is actually a delivery of the good or service."
Mr Bell says so far, only a small number of businesses have been targeted, but warns any business that has received the emails to contact their bank immediately. - Copyright 2007, ABC Australia
Posted April 13th, 2007 by Armen Hareyan
Beware of All E-mail Scammers
Any serious business man or woman should alsways consult the embassy before considering any business proposal from any foreigner and in particular an unsolicited proposal from a stranger on the Internet.
Some Europeans have been caught posing as Nigerian e-mail scammers and most of the e-mails now come from Europe and America and the notorious Internet scammers now have American and European addresses and telephone numbers.
Beware of all unsolicited proposals online and offline.
God bless.