In law enforcement, they call this scam the “Business Email Compromise.” We refer to it as the “Boss Scam” or “CEO Scam.” What happens is that someone contacts a person inside a business, pretending to be the chief executive officer or other boss-like person. They ask for one of two things: a wire transfer, or personal information about the employees under the real boss’s charge. Both scams are still going strong, and a new FBI report says that the scammers have taken at least $2.3 billion since 2013. [More]
boss scams
Seagate Employee Falls For CEO W-2 Scam, Sends Everyone’s Personal Information
By 3.7.16
Snapchat isn’t the only technology company that has fallen victim to the tax-season variation on the classic CEO e-mail scam, where a scammer impersonating the boss asks for all employees’ tax information. An employee at hard drive company Seagate fell into the same trap, sending 2015 tax information for thousands of current and former employees to unknown scammers. [More]
Fake Boss Wire Transfer Scammers Have Now Stolen $1.2 Billion From Companies
By 8.28.15
All year, we’ve been sharing information about a scam hitting companies all over the world, where very clever and resourceful scammers impersonate bosses and extract money on false pretenses. The best protection against this kind of fraud is education, and while law enforcement are doing their best to let people know about the scam, the number of victims is only increasing, and law enforcement estimates that the scammers have drained $1.2 billion worldwide from businesses’ bank accounts. [More]
