“A report published by the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) stated U.S. companies lost $263 million as a result of cybercriminal groups’ email scams in 2015.
The report noted that email scams, referred to as ‘Business Email Compromise’ (BEC), caused the most significant losses for U.S. companies. The Federal Bureau of Investigation received 7,838 BEC complaints with losses of over $263 million. The IC3 report defines BEC as ‘a sophisticated scam targeting businesses working with foreign suppliers and/or businesses that regularly perform wire transfer payments.’
The fraudulent attacks included ‘spoofed emails, intercepted facsimiles, or telephone communications to redirect invoice remittance payments,’ the report noted. ‘Fraudulent transfers have gone through accounts in many countries, with a large majority traveling through Asia.’”
Source: IC3 report: Criminals use email scams to steal $263M from U.S. companies
