With email playing such a prominent role in our daily lives, it’s more crucial than ever to take seriously the threat of email fraud. This threat takes the form of Business Email Compromise (BEC), a form of cybercrime that targets companies involved in wire transfer payments and financial transactions. According to the FBI, BEC scams have resulted in billions of dollars lost globally.
Here’s how it works: email hackers gain access to email accounts through phishing attacks or malware and then create email rules in their client that hide or redirect fraudulent activity from being detected. This means that financial institutions or vendors may receive convincing emails that seem to come directly from the account owner, when in reality the scammer is impersonating the account owner.
In reality, this was a terrifying experience for Teresa, who nearly lost thousands of dollars to BEC scam. After alerting her personal banker and conducting a thorough investigation, it was discovered that hackers had obtained a wiring instruction paper from Teresa’s email, changed the payment details, and directed the payment to their account.
As outlined above, protecting oneself from these types of fraud is crucial and can be accomplished through proactive cybersecurity measures, including strong antivirus software, complex passwords, enabling multifactor authentication, and regularly updating security questions.
Furthermore, considering using data removal services to maintain online anonymity can be a strong addition to such strategies. When using public services or accessing data, be careful about which security questions are accepted. Lastly, review your email settings for potential compromise.
Take a lesson from Teresa’s incident: cyber fraud can strike any day. Let us continue monitoring this cyber danger.