The FBI reports that Business Email Compromises (BEC) are one of the most financially damaging online crimes. It exploits the fact that so many of us rely on email to conduct personal and professional business.
In a BEC scam, criminals send an email message that appears to come from a known source making a legitimate request, like in these examples:
- A vendor your company regularly deals with sends an invoice with an updated mailing address.
- A company CEO asks her assistant to purchase dozens of gift cards to send out as employee rewards. She asks for the serial numbers so she can email them out right away.
- A homebuyer receives a message from his title company with instructions on how to wire his down payment.
In each of these cases, the wise move is to call the sources and verify directly with a number you look up, not the number included in the email.
