Fake Boss Wire Transfer Scammers Have Now Stolen $1.2 Billion From Companies

All year, we’ve been sharing information about a scam hitting companies all over the world, where very clever and resourceful scammers impersonate bosses and extract money on false pretenses. The best protection against this kind of fraud is education, and while law enforcement are doing their best to let people know about the scam, the number of victims is only increasing, and law enforcement estimates that the scammers have drained $1.2 billion worldwide from businesses’ bank accounts.

The scam itself is very simple: our fake e-mail up top sums up the basics. A scammer e-mails an employee, pretending to be the CEO, boss, or other person in charge. They ask for a certain amount to be transferred to an imaginary supplier.

While the return address will appear real, the actual domain name that the message comes from and that the user replies to will be a fake version that the scammer has registered: perhaps bossmeg@c0nsumerist.com or consumeri5t.com.

Scammers are becoming more sophisticated, and the FBI now warns companies to keep information like when your company’s bosses plan to travel off public websites and social media, since the premise of these e-mails is usually that the person requesting a wire transfer is out of town.

BUSINESS EMAIL COMPROMISE [FBI] (via Krebs on Security)

by Laura Northrup via Consumerist