BEC scams are a type of crime where criminals hack into email accounts, pretend to be someone they’re not and fool victims into sending money where it doesn’t belong.
Business Email Compromise scams get far less attention than the massive ransomware attacks that have triggered a powerful government response, but they siphon untold billions from the economy as authorities struggle to keep up.
A shopping spree in Beverly Hills, a luxury vacation in Mexico, a bank account that jumped from US$299.77 to US$1.4 million overnight.
From the outside, it looked like Moe and Kateryna Abourched had won the lottery.
But this big payday didn’t come from lucky numbers. Rather, a public school district in Michigan was tricked into wiring its monthly health insurance payment to the bank account of a California nail salon the Abourcheds owned, according to a search warrant application filed by a Secret Service agent in federal court.
The district and taxpayers fell victim to an online scam called Business Email