Originally published at DARKReading
There were more than 78K business email account (BEC) and email account compromise (EAC) scam incidents worldwide between October 2013 and May 2018.
New FBI data shows that business email compromise (BEC) and email account compromise (EAC) scam losses worldwide spiked 136% from December 2016 to May 2018.
There were 78,617 BEC/EAC incidents reported between October 2013 and May 2018, resulting in $12 billion in losses. Of those incidents, 41,058 were in the US, resulting in $2.9 billion in losses. China and Hong Kong banks led the locations for receipt of fraudulent funds, while the UK, Mexico, and Turkey are emerging regions, the FBI report shows.
“The scam may not always be associated with a request for transfer of funds. A variation of the scam involves compromising legitimate business e-mail accounts and requesting Personally Identifiable Information (PII) or Wage and Tax Statement (W-2) forms for employees,” the FBI said in its public service announcement reporting the latest statistics.
The real estate industry is the new hot target: from 2015 to 2017, there was an increase of 1,100% of BEC/EAC victims in that sector.
The following BEC/EAC statistics were reported to the IC3 and are derived from multiple sources, including IC3 and international law enforcement complaint data and filings from financial institutions between October 2013 and May 2018:
| Domestic and international incidents: | 78,617 |
| Domestic and international exposed dollar loss: | $12,536,948,299 |
| The following BEC/EAC statistics were reported in victim complaints where a country was identified to the IC3 from October 2013 to May 2018: | |
| Total U.S. victims: | 41,058 |
| Total U.S. victims: | $2,935,161,457 |
| Total non-U.S. victims: | 2,565 |
| Total non-U.S. exposed dollar loss: | $671,915,009 |
| The following BEC/EAC statistics were reported by victims via the financial transaction component of the IC3 complaint form, which became available in June 20163. The following statistics were reported in victim complaints to the IC3 from June 2016 to May 2018: | |
| Total U.S. financial recipients: | 19,335 |
| Total U.S. financial recipients: | $1,629,975,562 |
| Total non-U.S. financial recipients: | 11,452 |
| Total non-U.S. financial recipients exposed dollar loss: | $1,690,788,278 |
