Wire Fraud Phishing Scams on the Rise in 2016

Wire fraud phishing scams are not new. In fact, they seem to be on the rise. Between October 2013 and August 2015, the FBI reported that nearly $750 million was stolen from over 7,000 U.S. companies using this method.

It isn’t limited to the United States either. It happens in Canada and according to The Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre, this type of Business Executive Scam typically results in losses of more than $100,000 for a company. In that country, in the first eight months of 2015, this type of fraud cost companies $6 million. Compared to all of 2014, that is on target to surpass the $19 million from all of 2014.

What can people and companies do to avoid this?

1. Read emails, particularly unsolicited ones very carefully if they present any kind of urgent situation that supposedly requires immediate attention. This is one clue that it may be phishing.
2. If asked to wire or transfer funds from a company account, confirm and re-confirm with the requestor by means other than email to make sure it is legitimate. Don’t simply reply to a message.
3. Set up a separation of duties process so that no one person can wire money alone. It should require signatures and approvals from at least two people.
4. Pay attention to grammar and spelling, as well as logos and formatting of email messages, and signatures, even when you know the sender. It’s easy to fake an email address, so when in doubt, trash the message.
5. Look for urgency cues such as “this needs to be done immediately,” or phrases like “I can’t answer calls right now, so please email back.” These make it seem urgent and attempt to bypass any separation of duties processes that may be in place.

Don’t forget that taking a few minutes to educate staff on how to identify fraudulent requests and phishing email will go a long way in protecting your organization.

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