Advisory: FBI: $2.3 Billion Lost to CEO Email Scams

Recent reports have highlighted a different kind of phishing scam, as Brian Krebs notes:

The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) this week warned about a “dramatic” increase in so-called “CEO fraud,” e-mail scams in which the attacker spoofs a message from the boss and tricks someone at the organization into wiring funds to the fraudsters. The FBI estimates these scams have cost organizations more than $2.3 billion in losses over the past three years.

http://krebsonsecurity.com/2016/04/fbi-2-3-billion-lost-to-ceo-email-scams/ 

We've seen variations on this at the University of Minnesota, the most recent one attempting to collect all the W2 data from the U:

The good news is our staff has been appropriately skeptical of such attempts and never responded (at all) to the attackers. The takeaway is:

• Always question unusual requests, even if they DO come from the email of a colleague or management
• When in doubt, reach out and report such email to phishing@umn.edu