Last summer, the US Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) sounded a loud alarm for organizations about the growing danger of business email compromise (BEC) scams. At that time, the FBI said BEC fraud had cost organizations worldwide $12 billion in losses since 2013.
Since then, the threat has continued to grow more dire. Security industry researchers have shown BEC scams are increasing in scope and complexity as attackers perfect their attack playbooks to target an increasing number of victims around the globe.
Here, Dark Reading takes a look at how BEC scams work, the latest statistics on BEC prevalence, and some recent BEC horror stories that should help security professionals and users prepare themselves for this growing class of fraud.