This type of fraud uses faked memos from top executives to entice accounting personnel to transfer funds. The scam targets personnel in the accounting and auditing departments of a company who were authorized to transfer funds, often using time pressure and warnings about an alleged “secret project” to manipulate them to carry out the fake orders.
To reach out to them, the cybercriminals gathered info from social media networks, public company websites, job sites and even calls to the companies to fake the contact information for chief executives and other top executives. The BSI agency said officials investigating this fraud had secured a list of 5,000 potential targets, and were notifying those individuals.
Every day we send out a free e-mail with the most important headlines of the last 24 hours.
Subscribe now