FBI: Email Account Compromise Losses Reach $12B

New FBI data shows that business email compromise (BEC) and email account compromise (EAC) scam losses worldwide spiked 136% from December 2016 to May 2018.

There were 78,617 BEC/EAC incidents reported between October 2013 and May 2018, resulting in $12 billion in losses. Of those incidents, 41,058 were in the US, resulting in $2.9 billion in losses. China and Hong Kong banks led the locations for receipt of fraudulent funds, while the UK, Mexico, and Turkey are emerging regions, the FBI report shows.

"The scam may not always be associated with a request for transfer of funds. A variation of the scam involves compromising legitimate business e-mail accounts and requesting Personally Identifiable Information (PII) or Wage and Tax Statement (W-2) forms for employees," the FBI said in its public service announcement reporting the latest statistics.

The real estate industry is the new hot target: from 2015 to 2017, there was an increase of 1,100% of BEC/EAC victims in that sector.

Read more here. 

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