Business Email Compromise (BEC)

What it is

Business Email Compromise is a type of cybercrime where fraudsters gain access to a genuine email account belonging to a business, supplier, or senior employee. Once inside the mailbox, they monitor ongoing conversations and wait for the perfect moment to intercept or alter payment instructions. They then send realistic looking emails, from the legitimate account, asking for a change in bank details or urgent payment. Because the email comes from a real address and often uses the same writing style as the genuine sender, this scam can be extremely difficult to detect. The payment is then sent to a bank account controlled by criminals.