New Variations in Business Email Compromise Accounted for Losses of $43 Billion, Says FBI

Introduction of new variations in Business Email Compromise scams netted $43 Billion in losses causing major financial disruptions as stated by the FBI

With the situation of Business Email Compromise (BEC) getting worse, the financial industry is extensively falling as cybercriminals are becoming clever by finding new illicit avenues to make their fraudulent requests appear believable.

As per the public service announcement and report released by the FBI late last week, BEC scams have jumped a whopping 65% to a total of $43 Billion in losses worldwide from the year 2016 to 2021. All these findings and complaints have been obtained from Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), which has been compiling data since October 2013.

The Senior Analyst of TAG Cyber, Gary McAlum, said: “The latest report published by the FBI about the concerning situation of Business Email Committee is disturbing but not shocking”. Moreover, McAlum further added that BEC has become more sophisticated and progressed over time while quickly suppressing social protection systems and employee training programs. 

According to a statement released by the Strategic Advisor for Aite Novarica, Tari Schreider, advanced online scam artists are using the technology of deep voice along with website spoofing and are conducting fraudulent activities by taking over the accounts of employees to make them appear more believable and support their phishing emails. 

“Fraudsters commit BEC scams based on an illusion which can be conducted in months by tricking the company executives into believing the financial request while creating fake receivable accounts”. Schreider further stated. 

A significant increase in the rate of cryptocurrency-based complaints and losses in 2021 has been reported by IC3. As these transactions can be carried out quickly and tend to lack an audit trail, multiple bad actors are utilizing this illicit technique while obtaining employee PII or tax information to add realism, as noted by IC3.

BEC has been flourishing under the radar which has made it difficult to detect as they are not as blatant as clicking on a suspicious link. Furthermore, IC3 research uncovered that these scams incorporate more social engineering consisting of hijacking and imitating legal business email accounts. 

Suggested Read: Business Email Compromise Scam Taking a Toll on Businesses