Business Email Compromise Scams specifically target employees with the main aim of soliciting a fraudulent bank transfer. Each BEC attack on average attempts to steal US$80,000 from the unsuspecting company, but this figure is expected to soar in 2021. Remote working as a result of the pandemic has made it easier to target employees who are physically apart from their co-workers and may not have their guard up.
How a BEC Scam Occurs
- Barry is a senior member in his organisation and reports directly to his CEO. He receives an email from his CEO to make an urgent transfer from the company account to a vendor.
2. As his CEO is a demanding person, he does as instructed and transfers the money.
3. A while later, he receives another email from his CEO that confuses him.
4. It turns out that he was scammed by a hacker who impersonated his CEO.
Think it won’t happen to you? Think again.
There are some tell-tale signs that are a dead giveaway. Did you manage to spot them? A few tips include clicking on “Reply To” to reveal the actual email address of the sender, checking for grammatical, punctuation or spelling errors and the context of the email.
Always follow company policy before making a transfer of large sums of money.
With our Anti-Phishing Email Security that filters out malicious emails that bypass standard email filters and our Cyber Essentials Course, your defences against Cyber Crime will be stronger than ever.
