Boss says customers hacked to create havoc, panic

Havoc and panic, rather than monetary gain, seemed to have motivated hackers who sent scam emails to thousands of customers of a Coast energy company.

Havoc and panic, rather than monetary gain, seemed to have motivated hackers who sent scam emails to "thousands" of customers of a Coast energy company. Picture: Meg Gannon

HAVOC and panic, rather than monetary gain, seemed to have motivated hackers who sent scam emails to "thousands" of customers of a Coast energy resources company, according to its director.

Energy Resources Corporation boss Matthew Blundell said a database separate to the one which housed customers' personal information had been hacked and emails sent.

The emails, which asked for payment of a $2650 account, were sent to a mix of former and present customers of the Caloundra business on Friday morning.

A copy of the scam email purporting to be from Energy Resources Corporation. Picture: Contributed

Legitimate emails from the business warning of a scam were then sent to customers a few hours later.

"As soon as we saw it come out we knew something had happened somewhere," Mr Blundell said.

He said it appeared the hackers had accessed a database, created an email template and sent it to mailing lists.

He said links within the emails to pay the fake accounts didn't go anywhere.

"They weren't chasing payment.

"They were literally trying to create panic among people."

He said he couldn't understand how anyone would get enjoyment out of doing that.

"I've never seen anything like this."

Mr Blundell said his company had fielded a lot of calls from customers since the emails were sent.

He said he was still waiting for confirmation of how many people were contacted but said it was "thousands".

The scam has been reported to police and the Australian Cybercrime Online Reporting Network.

"The police even confirmed the motivation was to create havoc."

Mr Blundell said his company's security protocols had been double-checked and usage of the system that was hacked had been limited.

He said his company had relied on use of the system to communicate with customers but would find another way.

"The protection of our customers is paramount."