Security Awareness Training Blog

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.

FBI Cyber Warning: Attacks On Key Employees Up 100%, As 281 Are Arrested

Zak Doffman, contributor at Forbes reported: "There is a cyberattack epidemic hitting businesses around the world, targeting individuals responsible for requesting fund transfers or ...
Continue Reading

The FBI Updates Their Numbers And BEC Is Now A 26 Billion Dollar Scam

FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) says that Business Email Compromise (BEC) scams —aka CEO Fraud—are continuing to grow every year, with a 100% increase in the identified global ...
Continue Reading

CEO Fraud Overtakes Ransomware And Data Breaches In EMEA Cyber-insurance Claims

CEO Fraud—also known as Business Email Compromise—related cyber-insurance claims accounted for nearly a quarter of all claims in the EMEA region, AIG said.
Continue Reading

Gift Cards Are Now the #1 Business Email Compromise Cash-Out Mechanism for Fraudsters

Overtaking wire transfers and payroll diversion, gift cards have taken a material lead as one of the easiest and least recoverable ways to cash out of a fraud scam.
Continue Reading

Blank Emails Come Before BEC Fraud Attack

Business email compromise (or CEO fraud) has its reconnaissance phase, too. Researchers at Agari say they’ve found that blank, unsolicited emails are often an early sign that a BEC gang ...
Continue Reading

Business Email Compromise Doubles in Incidents and Triples in Cost

The latest data from the U.S. government’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) shows fraud via business email is changing tactics and becoming more effective.
Continue Reading

CEO Fraud hits B.C. lawyers for $2 million

Two B.C. law firms were targets of so-called social engineering frauds causing almost $2 million in real estate and investment funds to be wired to people other than clients the firms ...
Continue Reading

Pleading Guilty to Business Email Compromise

Amil Hassan Raage has taken a guilty plea to charges of fraud in a business email compromise (aka CEO fraud) case that netted him and his criminal co-conspirators almost three-quarters of ...
Continue Reading

Freight Forwarding Email Scams are Business Killers

The Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC) has warned that multiple Australian IT suppliers have permanently closed their doors after falling victim to procurement scams, CRN reports. ...
Continue Reading

CEO Fraud Phishing Scams Versus The U.K. Solicitors

The UK’s Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) has warned of another email scam that impersonated a real law firm in order to hijack a real estate transaction, according to Martin Parrin ...
Continue Reading

BEC = “Because it’s Easy Cash” Scammers Trick Employees Into Giving Away Customer Info

Business Email Compromise—also known as CEO Fraud—scammers are now targeting a company's customers using a new indirect attack method designed to collect information on future scam ...
Continue Reading

Whoa Nellie. BEC Scams Average USD 300 Million Per Month In Illegal Transfers

New data compiled by the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) shows that illegal transactions linked to business email compromise (BEC)—aka CEO Fraud— scams averaged $300 million ...
Continue Reading

Impersonation Phishing Attacks Up 67% in Last 12 Months

Social engineering attacks using impersonation tactics increased by 67% over the past twelve months, according to Mimecast’s annual State of Email Security report. Mimecast surveyed more ...
Continue Reading

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 ...
Continue Reading

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.
Continue Reading

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.
Continue Reading

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 ...
Continue Reading

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 ...
Continue Reading

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 ...
Continue Reading

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 ...
Continue Reading

Get the latest about social engineering

Subscribe to CyberheistNews