CYBER RISK ALERT: Bank of Spain warns of spate of "business email compromise" scam
By Iain Fraser - Cybersecurity Journalist, Gibraltar GI
The Bank of Spain has issued a warning about another damaging scam tagged as the "business email compromise" a new corporate email fraud that can interrupt/divert invoices paid by the "target" business via bank wire.
In a variation of a theme, criminals impersonate the identity of a supplier who is to issue an invoice after the targeted company exchanges information via email. They then modify these invoices by changing the IBAN of the receiving bank account.
All this information is obtained as usual from a relatively email hack of the suppliers email accounts.
As they are classified a "irrevocable" payment mandates banks are not refunded, nor can they be without the permission of the beneficiary account owner. I know ridiculous! However, in accordance with good financial practice and usage, the institution is required to make "reasonable efforts" to try to recover the amount transferred, by contacting the receiving bank.
As always if you feel that you might have been a victim of a "business email compromise" scam then first job - contact your bank (after changing ALL your corporate email passwords)
