BBB Warning: Beware of Business Email Compromise

The Better Business Bureau (bbb.org/nebraska) reveals that business email compromise is financial fraud, often targeting businesses engaged in international commerce. Scammers use malware to gain access to company email and instruct accounting employees to send money to another company overseas. The FBI calls this scam “more sophisticated” than other scams aimed at businesses.

How the Scam Works:
You receive an email from your company CEO, who may be out of the country or away from the office on business, asking you to arrange a wire transfer of a large sum of money to a “supplier” or “business partner” often in another country. The request is similar to transactions you’ve handled in the past. Unfortunately, sophisticated scammers – believed to be part of organized crime groups from Africa, Eastern Europe, and the Middle East – are targeting companies that regularly work with suppliers in foreign countries and routinely send large sums via wire transfer. Businesses of all sizes can be targets, and the scam is growing.

How to Spot the Scam:
1. Be suspicious of change. An email request for a wire transfer to a new vendor (or to an old vendor at a new address) is a big red flag. Be especially wary of requests for confidentiality or pressure to move quickly on the request. If at all possible, voice-verify the request with the person requesting it.

2. Pay close attention to the email address. One trick of scammers is to use a domain name that is almost exactly like the company URL, maybe off by just one letter (for instance, .co instead of .com).
To report a scam, go to BBB Scam Tracker at bbb.org/scamtracker/us. To learn how to protect yourself, go to “10 Steps to Avoid Scams” at bbb.org/avoidscams.

Better Business Bureau has been serving the local communities since 1936. The overall mission of BBB is to be the leader in advancing marketplace trust. Learn more online at bbb.org/nebraska, or call (800) 649-6814.