FBI Issues Warning About BEC Scams as Losses Increase to $43 Billion
HIPAA Journal
Steve Alder
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has issued a public service announcement warning about the threat of Business Email Compromise/Email Account Compromise (BEC/EAC) scams. The number of attacks reported to the FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) and the amount of money lost to these scams continues to grow each year, with losses to BEC/EAC scams increasing 65% between July 2019 and December 2021.
BEC/EAC scams are the leading cause of losses to cybercrime. Between June 2016 and December 2021, IC3 received 241,206 complaints about domestic and international BEC/EAC attacks with reported losses of more than $43.3 billion. The IC3 2021 Internet Crime Report shows victims reported losses of $2.4 billion in 2021 across 19,954 complaints – around...