Business Email Compromise (BEC or Spearphishing) continues to grow!

BankInfoSecurity.com reported that “U.S. federal law enforcement arrested four members of a business email conspiracy and credit card fraud ring, alleging they collectively tricked legitimate businesses into enriching them by $9.2 million.”  The December 9, 2022 report entitled “US Law Enforcement Arrests 4 for Business Email Compromise” (https://tinyurl.com/wsfb39vj) included these comments:

 The charges against the four accused men - three residents of California and one of Nevada - include conspiracy to commit wire fraud and bank fraud, money laundering, engaging in a conspiracy to committee wire fraud and money laundering, as well as aggravated identity theft. If found guilty on all counts, they face a potential cumulative sentence of 122 years in prison.

Joel Zubaid, 55, Julian Rebiga, 55, David Goran, 56 and Martin Mizrahi, 51, allegedly carried out at least three fraudulent schemes between April and June 2021, a grand jury indictment states (https://tinyurl.com/2s4b4eyt).

As a result of their business email compromise efforts, the defendants allegedly obtained more than $5.4 million from businesses duped into believing they were legitimately corresponding with a business contact. In one case, according to the indictment, conspirators obtained access to the business email account of a chief financial officer of a community development corporation.

No surprises about BEC continuing to grow!