Long before it evolved into a slick corporate Business Email Compromise / BEC, Ultrascan investigated an ID Theft niche market for organised crime, the sending of correspondent bank payment instructions to Treasury departments of Federal Reserve and Central Banks.
A niche market for organised crime, the sending of correspondent payment instructions to Treasury departments of Federal Reserve and Central Banks, evolved into a slick corporate business email compromise BEC/ID theft.
A scam in which criminals impersonate chief executives, by spoofing their email addresses, has cost businesses around the world billions.
Corporate ID fraud
There is a sharp increase in “business email scams” a simple scam that is also known as “CEO fraud”, with thousands of victims affected globally.
In the scam, a criminal impersonates a chief executive’s email account and directs an employee to wire money to an overseas bank account. By the time one realises it is a fraud, the money is gone.
For this type of business frauds the fraudsters require a professional criss-cross money laundering set-up to transfer large amounts over many bank accounts in many different international jurisdictions.
It concerns transnational organized crime and is a global problem.
To tackle these incidents, we’re working with criminal investigation and cyber crime experts in the Ultrascan research network.
The reported frauds can be partly attributed to companies detecting the crime, but it also reflects the simple nature of the scheme that can be run from anywhere around the globe. All you need is a computer.
Ultimate beneficiaries
Most of the bank accounts in which the money ends up are operated by a global criminal network of (419) Advance Fee Fraud scammers and located in Asia and Africa, where we coordinate counter initiatives.
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