Business Email Compromise: The $55 Billion Scam


Business Email Compromise/Email Account Compromise (BEC) is a sophisticated scam that targets both businesses and individuals who perform legitimate transfer-of-funds requests.

The scam is frequently carried out when an individual compromises legitimate business or personal email accounts through social engineering (PSA I-041124-PSA) or computer intrusion to conduct unauthorized transfers of funds. Often times BEC variations involve compromising legitimate business email accounts and requesting employees’ Personally Identifiable Information in order to compromise other accounts that may be related to other scams.

Read more…
Source: U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation Cyber Division


Sign up for our Newsletter


Related:

  • Europe-wide takedown hits longest-standing dark web drug market

    June 16, 2025

    Law enforcement authorities across Europe have dismantled ‘Archetyp Market’, the most enduring dark web marketplace, following a large-scale operation involving six countries, supported by Europol and Eurojust. Between 11 and 13 June, a series of coordinated actions took place across Germany, the Netherlands, Romania, Spain, Sweden, targeting the platform’s administrator, moderators, key vendors, and technical infrastructure. ...

  • WestJet investigating possible cyberattack

    June 16, 2025

    WestJet has apparently suffered a cyberattack which has disrupted some of its services, including impacting the airline’s website and mobile app. The company confirmed the news in a security advisory posted on its website, noting, “WestJet is aware of a cybersecurity incident involving internal systems and the WestJet app, which has restricted access for several users.” ...

  • Hackers take aim at Washington Post journalists in an apparent ‘targeted’ cyberattack

    June 15, 2025

    Hackers have tried to break into the email accounts of a select number of Washington Post journalists, according to an internal Washington Post memo obtained by CNN. The Post discovered the “possible targeted” hack of its email system last Thursday, prompting the newspaper to reset login credentials for all its employees on Friday, Washington Post Executive ...

  • Anubis: A Closer Look at an Emerging Ransomware with Built-in Wiper

    June 13, 2025

    A new ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) group has emerged and has been making a name for itself in 2025. Anubis is a recently identified group that sets itself apart by partnering encryption with more destructive capabilities—wiping directories which severely impact chances of file recovery. Given its brief history and use of a multi-layered extortion model, Anubis has all ...

  • Mitel Releases Security Advisory for MiCollab

    June 13, 2025

    Mitel has released a security advisory to address a critical severity vulnerability in Mitel MiCollab. MiCollab is a cloud-based platform that integrates chat, voice, video, and SMS messaging for teams. The vulnerability, which has no CVE identifier at time of publish, is a “path traversal” vulnerability with a CVSSv3 score of 9.8. Successful exploitation could allow ...

  • Apple fixes new iPhone zero-day bug used in Paragon spyware hacks

    June 12, 2025

    Researchers revealed on Thursday that two European journalists had their iPhones hacked with spyware made by Paragon. Apple says it has fixed the bug that was used to hack their phones. The Citizen Lab wrote in its report, shared with TechCrunch ahead of its publication, that Apple had told its researchers that the flaw exploited in ...