An investment company in Troy, Michigan, was recently robbed of $495,000 through a common email fraud method where the hacker, posing as a co-worker, had the funds transferred to his account.
A Pomeroy Investment Corp staff received an email from another "employee" of the company asking for transfer of funds into a Hong Kong bank, reports The Detroit News. The so-called email appeared genuine to the recipient, who had the money transferred. It was some days before the company realized they had been cheated via what is known as a business email compromise (BEC).
Troy police received a complaint about the incident alleging the sender’s email had been hacked and the fake mail sent. They cautioned against transfer of any amount of money based on emails and advised verifying messages before making any money transactions.