Ride the Lightning

FBI Warns of Dramatic Increase in Business E-mail Scams

April 11, 2016

On April 4^th, the FBI posted a warning about a dramatic increase in business e-mail scams. From October 2013-February 2016, law enforcement received reports from 17,642 victims. Losses during that period amounted to a staggering $2.3 billion in losses.

Since January 2015, the FBI has seen a 270% increase in these BEC (business e-mail compromise) scams. The criminals spoof company e-mail or use social engineering to assume the identity of the CEO, a company attorney or a trusted vendor. They research employees who manage money and use language specific to the company they are targeting, then request a wire transfer of funds using dollar amounts that make the request seem legitimate. They often target businesses that work with foreign suppliers or regularly perform wire transfer payments.

So train your employees – look for suspicious elements in such e-mails – and pick up that telephone to verify that the requests are valid!

E-mail: Phone: 703-359-0700
Digital Forensics/Information Security/Information Technology
http://www.senseient.com
http://twitter.com/sharonnelsonesq
www.linkedin.com/in/sharondnelson