Cyberattack And The Risk To Wire Transfers

Business email accounts are increasingly susceptible to scams around wire transfers, creating cybersecurity breaches that often lead to litigation and cost businesses dearly. A United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) report noted that its business email compromise (BEC) complaint centre received complaints with losses exceeding USD 2.4 billion in 2021. 

A typical wire transfer scam works like this: A bad actor intercepts a conversation between individuals communicating by email about a scheduled transaction and modifies wire instructions so the payment, which may be substantial, ends up with the bad actor instead of the intended recipient. Before anyone notices the fraud, the money is long gone.