BEC scams cost companies billions, and the cost is rising
The toll on businesses worldwide from BEC scams – or Business Email Compromise scams – is vast, and growing.
BEC scams typically occur when a cybercriminal poses as an employee or boss of a company in order to gain access to sensitive information.
According to the FBI, BEC scams cost users more than $55 billion in the past 10 years. Just from 2022 to 2023, a 9% increase in global losses was reported. BEC scams have been reported in more than 187 countries.
To avoid falling for BEC scams, always check the sender’s address, to see if it matches the typical address they use to contact you from. Verify any strange requests from coworkers through a second method of communication.
The most successful words in BEC scams
After analyzing large amounts of data, a recent study has identified a trend of common words that appear most frequently in scam messages that are successfully deceiving users.
Here are the top 5:
- Income
- Investment
- Money
- Loan
- Credit
Interestingly, the study found that “Free” was the most commonly used word in scam messages but was the least successful.
Reach Blair IT to keep your network safe and secure
Have staff members at your organization been victimized by phishing scams, opening your work systems to malicious attacks?
Contact the security experts at Blair IT to discuss how to create a network protected against scammers and cyber criminals. Call us at 614-898-9925 or fill out our online form to request a consultation today.