Boss scam: 42 million US dollars stolen, handcuffs click shortly afterwards
CEO fraud is a global threat and criminals are scamming millions. Now an Interpol operation shows that it pays for victims to act quickly.
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A company in Singapore has fallen victim to email fraud and lost around 42 million US dollars to fraudsters. However, as the company reacted quickly and called in globally networked investigative authorities, a large part of the sum was transferred back.
Business e-mail compromise
In the"CEO fraud" scam, fraudsters spy on companies to find out internal information about employees and partners, for example. Based on this information, they send a fake email in the name of a supplier, as in this example. The sender's address had a misspelled letter, but still looked very similar to the legitimate address, Interpol explains in a press release.
Apparently, the criminals did their research so well and sent a credible email based on this that the company released a payment of 42.3 million US dollars to the fake supplier.
Comparatively quick response
When the real supplier contacted the fraudsters four days after the money transfer and said that no money had been received, the fraud was discovered. The company claims to have immediately reported the case to the police in Singapore, who in turn called in Interpol.
The investigators state that they were able to seize 39 million US dollars the very next day. In the days that followed, they reportedly arrested several suspects and seized a further 2 million US dollars.
In 2022, the FBI, among others, arrested 65 suspects accused of Business Email Compromise (BEC).
(des)