During the 26th Egmont Group Plenary meeting in The Hague, The Netherlands, the Heads of FIU (HoFIU) endorsed the first Egmont Information Exchange Working Group’s (IEWG’s) Bulletin on Business Email Compromise (CEO) Fraud.
The Egmont Group is issuing this bulletin not just to alert member FIUs and their jurisdictions of the increasing threat posed by Business Email Compromise (BEC) fraud schemes, but law enforcement authorities and the private sector also. BEC fraud schemes are among the fastest-growing cyber-enabled crime threats adversely affecting financial institutions, exposing the financial sector to billions of dollars in losses worldwide. These schemes target business organizations, professionals, and individuals by compromising either business or personal email accounts to send (or cause to be sent) false payment instructions and other information used to conduct financial fraud.
Financial institutions can play an important role in identifying, preventing, and reporting BEC fraud schemes by promoting greater communication and collaboration among their internal anti-money laundering (AML), business, fraud prevention, and cybersecurity units.
The Bulletin contains indicators of BEC schemes and associated fraudulently-induced transactions. Reporting institutions receiving this Bulletin may use it to identify and report possible BEC-related transactions to competent authorities.
