The United States Treasury Department came out with a report last week that concludes that business email compromises (BEC) are costing U.S. companies more than $301 million per month. The report confirms that the two industries hit the hardest by these scams are manufacturing and construction.

The report, issued by the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, reports that 1,100 BEC scams occurred each month against U.S. companies in 2018, which is an increase from 500 per month in 2016. The BECs cost U.S. companies $301 million per month, which is an increase from $110 million per month in 2016.

The scams outlined in the report are the same ones that we see every day. They start with phishing schemes to an executive in the company, then the intruder either impersonates the executive to request other members of the company to send information or money, or they follow the executive’s email, forward it to a Gmail account without the knowledge of the executive, and start to follow the email trails to determine who the executive and business are doing business with, who the vendors and third parties are, and to whom the company owes money. They are patient, and at just the right time, the intruder copies the signature line of the executive, and requests that Accounts Payable wire a known vendor tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars to a bank account that the fraudster drains after the money is wired.
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