Posted August 2025

Not every cyberattack comes with flashing warnings. Sometimes, it starts with an email that looks perfectly normal.

1. CEO/Executive fraud – Attackers may impersonate executives to trick finance staff into transferring funds to fraudulent accounts.
2. Account compromise – In this type of BEC attack, a hacked employee email is used to request vendor payments—an easy, lucrative scam that netted one attacker over $1.5 million before their 2024 arrest.
3. False-Invoice schemes – Attackers may impersonate suppliers or government agencies to request fund transfers or bids, using PDF attachments with QR codes that lead to fake phishing websites.
4. Attorney impersonation – In this BEC attack, cybercriminals impersonate lawyers to pressure lower-level employees into urgent fund transfers—one scheme in Paris stole nearly €38 million.
5. Data theft – In these attacks, threat actors pose as insiders to trick employees—often in HR or leadership—into handing over sensitive data, which is later used for phishing, fraud, or ransomware.
6. Product Theft – An attacker, imitating a customer, will trick an organization into selling (and shipping) a large quantity of product on credit.

Here’s what BEC (Business Email Compromise) looks like in real life:
💸 A finance team wires money after a fake CEO request
📨 A vendor email is hacked and used to reroute payments
📦 A company ships thousands in product—never to be paid
⚖️ An employee falls for a fake lawyer’s urgent transfer request
🗂 HR unknowingly hands over sensitive employee data

All of these are forms of BEC, one of today’s most effective (and expensive) forms of cybercrime. The good news is that these attacks are preventable with the right awareness and security protocols.

📲 Let iPower show you how to stay a step ahead.