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CEO Fraud Blog

News about the latest CEO fraud attacks. See how the bad guys actually do this and how much money companies lose to this type of scam.

BEC Scams are a Growing Threat to Retailers

Cybercriminals are improving their social engineering skills to target online retailers with sophisticated business email compromise (BEC) scams, according to Rafael Lourenco at ...
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Business Email Compromise Doubled in 2018, Topping the FBI’s List of Internet Crimes

Despite the massive uptick in just about every cybercrime category, good old-fashioned fraud via email phishing and social engineering dominate as the threat to be most concerned about.
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Scott County Schools victim of $3.7 million CEO Fraud Phishing Scam

GEORGETOWN, Ky. (WKYT) - Scott County Schools has announced the district is a victim of a multi-million dollar online CEO fraud scam. 
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Ottawa City Treasurer sends $128,000 to fraudsters in email phishing scam

The treasurer of the city of Ottawa, Marian Simulik, fell for a business email compromise (BEC) scam and sent $100,000 to a scammer, the city’s auditor general revealed this week. Simulik ...
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BEC Scammers Stole $170,000 From Two Defense Contractors and a University

Two defense contractors and a university lost approximately $170,000 from business email compromise (BEC) scams last year, according to an FBI advisory obtained by CyberScoop. The ...
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Ins and Outs of Impersonation...and Kidnapping

Impersonation attacks and business email compromise (aka CEO fraud) can lead to far more dangerous consequences than monetary losses, according to Matt Devost from OODA LLC. Devost ...
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Friday Afternoon, Monday Morning, and Law Firm Risk

Law firm employees appear to be getting better at avoiding real estate scams, says Toni Ryder-McMullin at Today’s Conveyancer. Conveyance is the act of transferring an ownership interest ...
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Business Email Compromise, Credential Theft, and Many Other Attack Vectors Surged as High as 5x in Q4 2018

The latest data from Proofpoint shows many types of cyberattacks making massive jumps in comparison to both previous quarters and years.
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Company Sues Employee After She Falls For USD 250K CEO Fraud Scam

A woman is being sued for sending approx. 250K of her employer's cash to an online fraudster.  Patricia Reilly, who was working for the UK Peebles Media Group fell for a CEO Fraud Scam ...
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Another Home Buyer Falls Victim to a Business Email Compromise Scam

A man in Portland, Oregon lost $123,000 after falling victim to a real-estate scam, according to Michele Lerner at The Washington Post. In December, Aaron Cole and his family were about ...
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Scam Of The Week: CEO Fraud bad guys are now bribing your users

Today saw the arrival of yet another interesting variant of the gift card phishing campaigns that have grown into a deluge over the past few months (see below). Today's email demonstrates ...
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Criminals Make Off With USD $150,000 in Business Email Compromise Real Estate Scam

Scammers stole $150,000 from a woman during a real estate transaction last year, according to Lisa Vaas at Naked Security. Mireille Appert, a Swiss woman who lives in the United States, ...
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Chinese Hackers Take Phishing and CEO Fraud to Another Level Raking in $18.6 Million

A talented group of Fraudsters used phishing, social engineering, and pure chutzpah to convince the India arm of Italian engineering company Tecnimont to part with millions of dollars.
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Finra punishes former Schwab broker for lying about role in $800,000 CEO Fraud scam

A former broker for Charles Schwab & Co.was fined $5,000 and suspended for 90 days by Finra for lying to Schwab about a CEO Fraud attack in which he wired nearly $800,000 to someone ...
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Judge Calls for County Officials to Resign After Falling Victim to a $500K CEO Fraud Scam

Months after a classic fraud scam took Galveston County for $525,000, County Judge Mark Henry is now asking for the County Auditor and Purchasing Agent to resign.
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Real Estate Transactions are Increasingly Vulnerable to CEO Fraud

The real estate industry is a particularly attractive target for BEC (Business Email Compromise—also known as CEO Fraud—attacks, according to FBI spokesman David Fitz. Fitz told The ...
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The FBI Catches CEO Fraud Scammers by Giving Them a Taste of Their Own Medicine

The case of how the FBI turned the tables on cybercriminals using the very same tactics demonstrates how powerful the art of social engineering and deception can get a victim to act.
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CEO Fraud Attacks are Citing the California Wildfires

Criminals are using the California wildfires as a social engineering tactic to manipulate people into buying gift cards supposedly intended for victims of the disaster, according to James ...
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Learning a 120K Lesson the Hard Way

The bank isn’t always responsible for making you whole after a business email compromise. Indiana’s Lake Ridge Schools lost more than $120,000 from a seven-million-dollar construction ...
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Attackers Impersonate CEOs to Scam Employees into Sending Gift Cards for the Holidays

A crafty mix of social engineering, great timing, and context act as the perfect ingredients to trick unwitting users into buying gift cards and placing them into the hands of the ...
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