Don't close this tab! I know there are few combinations of words less interesting than business, email, and compromise. I may as well have written an article about fiber, socks, and responsibility. But this isn't a boring article: it's an article about email con artists who, according to the FBI , are pulling in $26 billion a year by scamming people.
So yeah: business email compromise scams are a big deal. The con artists behind this criminal enterprise will cold email you, pretending to be someone you work with, in order to gain access to money or information. You might get an email that appears to be from your company's CEO asking you to quickly do something like buy gift cards, or you might get an email that looks like it's from an employee at your company asking you to change their direct deposit information.
The scam itself can take a lot of forms, but the end goal is to somehow siphon money away from you or the business you work for. It's worth it for anyone with a desk job to take a few moments to learn how to spot these emails. I talked with a few experts, and they passed along some helpful advice.
When I asked two cybersecurity experts about BEC fraud, I expected them to lead with technical advice. Both started with emotions. This makes sense: while such fraud happens on computers, it is at its heart about psychological manipulation.
So spotting an email compromise scam requires getting in touch with how you're feeling. "If an email elicits an emotional response, tak.
