Introduction
How do most major cyber incidents begin? Often, they start with an email.
The message looks normal, request seems routine, and the email appears to come from a sender you recognize.
Within minutes, you approve a payment, change banking information, or share sensitive information with someone who seems legitimate. Only later does anyone realize the message wasn’t real.
This type of attack is called Business Email Compromise (BEC), and it remains one of the most financially damaging cyber threats facing organizations today.
What Is Business Email Compromise?
BEC occurs when criminals impersonate a trusted person — such as a coworker, executive, vendor, or partner — to trick somebody within the organization into sending money or sharing sensitive information.
Unlike traditional phishing emails that look obviously suspicious, BEC attacks are often carefully crafted and highly believable.
The message may appear to come from your CEO or manager, a coworker in finance or accounting, trusted vendors and suppliers, and clients with various pressing requests. Because the request seems familiar and urgent, people often respond without questioning the true source or intention.
The Financial Impact
BEC attacks are responsible for billions of dollars in losses every year. These scams caused over $2.9B in reported losses in 2024, making them one of the most costly forms of cybercrime that year.
Many incidents involve large wire transfers, but smaller requests (like the gift card scam popular in 2020, or falsely recreated invoices) are also common because they add up over time. In many cases, the victim sends payment before anyone realizes the message was fraudulent.
BEC attacks work because they target human behavior, not technical systems. They rely on trust, authority, urgency, and routine. Technology can filter many malicious emails, but it cannot prevent someone from voluntarily sending money to a convincing request.
How These Attacks Work
BEC scams usually follow a simple pattern.
- Step 1: Research
Attackers gather information about a company using public sources such as social media, websites, press releases, and employee directories. They learn who works in finance, who approves payments, and who communicates with vendors.
- Step 2: Impersonation
The attacker sends an email pretending to be someone the recipient trusts. Sometimes the email address is only slightly different from the true domain. In other cases, attackers gain access to a real email account and send messages directly from it. They can also “spoof” their address to look legitimate.
- Step 3: Urgency
The message often includes a sense of urgency, such as, “I need this payment processed today,” or, “This is confidential.” The goal is to pressure the recipient into acting quickly.
- Step 4: Payment or Information
The victim follows the instructions and sends money or sensitive data to the attacker. By the time they discover the mistake, the funds have often been transferred through multiple accounts and are ultimately difficult to recover.
Why These Emails Are Hard to Spot
BEC attacks succeed because they look normal. They may:
- Reference real projects or invoices
- Use familiar writing styles
- Appear within existing email conversations
- Include accurate company details
Unlike spam messages filled with typos and suspicious links, these emails are often professional and convincing. Remember, the attacker doesn’t have to fool everyone. They only need to convince one person long enough to approve a payment.
Awareness and verification are therefore our strongest defenses.
Common Red Flags
Even well-crafted emails may include warning signs. Be cautious if a message involves:
- Urgent requests for wire transfers
- Changes to payment or banking details
- Requests for gift card purchases
- Pressure to bypass normal approval processes
- Instructions to keep the request confidential
Any request involving money or sensitive information should immediately get your extra attention to verify the message.
Why Verification Is Critical
The most effective defense against Business Email Compromise is simple: Verify the request through a second channel.
If you receive an email asking for payment, banking changes, or sensitive information, what should you do?
- Call the sender using a known phone number.
- Confirm the request through your official messaging platform.
- Speak with the person directly if possible.
- Follow established approval procedures.
Never rely solely on the email itself. Attackers depend on people acting quickly without confirming the request.
Conclusion
Business Email Compromise boils down to a carefully crafted message, designed to look normal long enough to trigger a costly mistake. That one email can lead to a six-figure loss, reputational damage, and weeks of investigation.
The good news is that these attacks are preventable. Taking a moment to verify unusual financial requests can stop fraud before it starts.
In cybersecurity, a simple phone call can be worth far more than a rushed reply!
