Be Alert – Protecting Colart

In recent months, many organisations — including some in our own industry — have been targeted by highly convincing scams designed to trick employees into making changes that put the company at financial or legal risk.

One common tactic is email compromise, where an attacker either spoofs or gains access to a legitimate supplier or partner’s email account. They then send an email, often in the middle of an existing conversation thread, requesting urgent changes such as:

· Updating bank account details for future payments.

· Changing payment instructions or contact information.

· Providing confidential data without proper verification.

These messages often look authentic — correct logos, email signatures, and writing styles — but they can be fraudulent.

How to Stay Vigilant

If you receive a request for any change to payment or banking details:

1. Do not act on the email alone.

2. Always verify using pre-approved contact methods (namely directly calling the supplier using a phone number from our system, not the email).

3. Report all suspicious requests to Technical Support immediately.

Sending Documents Externally – Security First

To protect Colart and our partners, all documents sent outside the organisation should be sent as PDF files, not Word documents.

Why?

· Word files can be easily edited, even after being sent, which creates legal and compliance risks.

· PDFs are more secure, preserve formatting, and can be locked to prevent editing.

If a signature is required:

· Send the document as a PDF until our new e-signature process is in place.

· We are currently evaluating DocuSign for secure digital signing, and for legal contracts we continue to use ContractSafe to ensure compliance and safe record-keeping.

Remember:

· Verify before you trust – especially when it comes to financial or contractual changes.

· Lock down what you send – PDFs over Word for all external documents.

· Use approved signing processes – never accept “pasted” or image signatures in editable files.

These simple steps protect Colart from fraud, maintain the integrity of our documents, and keep our business secure.

Sanjay Marwaha

Technology Director