Business Email Compromise, Credential Theft, and Many Other Attack Vectors Surged as High as 5x in Q4 2018

Feb 14, 2019 11:30:32 AM By Stu Sjouwerman

The latest data from Proofpoint shows many types of cyberattacks making massive jumps in comparison to both previous quarters and years.

Company Sues Employee After She Falls For USD 250K CEO Fraud Scam

Feb 12, 2019 10:02:32 AM By Stu Sjouwerman

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 ...

Another Home Buyer Falls Victim to a Business Email Compromise Scam

Feb 11, 2019 3:57:59 PM By Stu Sjouwerman

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 ...

Scam Of The Week: CEO Fraud bad guys are now bribing your users

Jan 29, 2019 7:27:00 AM By Stu Sjouwerman

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 ...

Criminals Make Off With USD $150,000 in Business Email Compromise Real Estate Scam

Jan 22, 2019 5:20:21 PM By Stu Sjouwerman

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, ...

Chinese Hackers Take Phishing and CEO Fraud to Another Level Raking in $18.6 Million

Jan 22, 2019 3:49:38 PM By Stu Sjouwerman

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.

Finra punishes former Schwab broker for lying about role in $800,000 CEO Fraud scam

Jan 12, 2019 10:26:19 AM By Stu Sjouwerman

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 ...

Judge Calls for County Officials to Resign After Falling Victim to a $500K CEO Fraud Scam

Jan 1, 2019 8:10:52 AM By Stu Sjouwerman

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.

Real Estate Transactions are Increasingly Vulnerable to CEO Fraud

Dec 20, 2018 3:30:07 PM By Stu Sjouwerman

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 ...

The FBI Catches CEO Fraud Scammers by Giving Them a Taste of Their Own Medicine

Dec 7, 2018 2:29:46 PM By Stu Sjouwerman

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.

CEO Fraud Attacks are Citing the California Wildfires

Dec 5, 2018 6:50:19 AM By Stu Sjouwerman

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 ...

Learning a 120K Lesson the Hard Way

Dec 1, 2018 10:52:26 AM By Stu Sjouwerman

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 ...

Attackers Impersonate CEOs to Scam Employees into Sending Gift Cards for the Holidays

Dec 1, 2018 8:07:40 AM By Stu Sjouwerman

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 ...

[Heads-up] Bad Guys Are Now Taking Over Email Inboxes Without Phishing Attacks

Nov 24, 2018 8:43:21 AM By Stu Sjouwerman

I found a great article in SecurityWeek by Alastair Paterson, the CEO of Digital Shadows. Could not have said it better myself, and he alerted everyone about an attack vector that was ...

Hacked Law Firm Can't Claw Back $580,000 From Bank That Completed Transfer

Nov 17, 2018 2:50:40 PM By Stu Sjouwerman

Max Mitchell at Law.com has an interesting and rather painful story. Don't let this happen to your organization.

[Heads-up] FIRED: Two C-level Execs Who Fall Victim To A Massive 21 Million Dollar CEO Fraud

Nov 10, 2018 10:56:04 AM By Stu Sjouwerman

Two top-level executives of movie chain Pathé—the Managing Director and the CFO—were fired recently, after it became clear that they fell for a massive CEO Fraud attack that could have ...

[Heads-up] U.S. Government: "Your Weak Cyber Security Violates Federal Law"

Oct 21, 2018 8:36:39 AM By Stu Sjouwerman

Reuters just made me aware of a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission report about a recent SEC investigation of nine companies that had been victims of CEO fraud had sufficient ...

Brand-New Tool: Domain Doppelgänger Identifies Evil Twin Domains

Sep 27, 2018 10:56:40 AM By Stu Sjouwerman

I gave you a heads-up a few days ago, and now I'm excited to announce the actual release of a new tool to help protect your organization from cybercriminals.

Phishing Attack On Office 365 Account Leads To 3 Million CEO Fraud

Sep 24, 2018 7:02:50 AM By Stu Sjouwerman

A phishing attack on an Office 365-account enabled a 3 Mil CEO Fraud Scam at an investment firm. Finnish antivirus company F-Secure reported on their blog. One of the employees at the ...

[ALERT] CEO Fraud Escalates. Bad Guys Now Go After Employee Personal Address And Phone Number

Sep 14, 2018 8:00:00 AM By Stu Sjouwerman

KnowBe4 is observing a serious escalation of CEO Fraud. They are now requesting street addresses and personal phone numbers of employees—an attempt to contact and manipulate employees ...

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