Advisory: Business E-Mail Compromise

FBI warning of scam email threat called business e-mail compromise (BEC).

Since 2013, when the FBI began tracking an emerging financial cyber threat called business e-mail compromise (BEC), organized crime groups have targeted large and small companies and organizations in every U.S. state and more than 100 countries around the world—from non-profits and well-known corporations to churches and school systems. Losses are in the billions of dollars and climbing.

At its heart, BEC relies on the oldest trick in the con artist’s handbook: deception. But the level of sophistication in this multifaceted global fraud is unprecedented, according to law enforcement officials, and professional businesspeople continue to fall victim to the scheme.

Carried out by transnational criminal organizations that employ lawyers, linguists, hackers, and social engineers, BEC can take a variety of forms. But in just about every case, the scammers target employees with access to company finances and trick them into making wire transfers to bank accounts thought to belong to trusted partners—except the money ends up in accounts controlled by the criminals.

“BEC is a serious threat on a global scale,” said Special Agent Martin Licciardo, a veteran organized crime investigator at the FBI’s Washington Field Office. “And the criminal organizations that perpetrate these frauds are continually honing their techniques to exploit unsuspecting victims.”    ...

https://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/business-e-mail-compromise-on-the-rise

Timeline of business e-mail compromise attack

See also:

• https://www.trendmicro.com/vinfo/us/security/definition/business-email-compromise-(bec)
• https://resources.infosecinstitute.com/5-real-world-examples-business-email-compromise/