According to the FBI, a number of incidents have recently arisen where scammers target physical goods instead of tricking victims to execute wire transfers. In one instance, four fraudulent companies using real employee names placed a $600,000 order for milk powder from a food manufacturer. According to the FBI, a number of incidents have recently arisen where scammers target physical goods instead of tricking victims to execute wire transfers. In one instance, four fraudulent companies using real employee names placed a $600,000 order for milk powder from a food manufacturer. (Photo: WavebreakmediaMicro/Adobe Stock)

Business email compromise (a.k.a., CEO fraud) attacks are a highly targeted form of phishing where scammers impersonate a C-level executive or a critical supplier by spoofing websites, hijacking emails, faking social media profiles, leveraging deepfake video and other tactics, to make their identities appear more believable and trustworthy. They then instruct victims to carry out unauthorized wire transfers, purchase gift cards, update billing and banking information or other common financial transaction. BEC scams are probably one of the most profitable, low-tech cybercrimes. Global businesses lost a whopping $43 billion to BEC between 2016 and 2021. Some estimate BEC is 64 times costlier than ransomware attacks.

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