What is a Business email compromise?
A scam where an attacker uses or imitates a business email account to redirect payments.
Business email compromise (BEC) is the most expensive scam facing small businesses. An attacker reads or imitates email between you and a supplier, then asks for payment to a new bank account at the right moment. The invoice looks real because it is a real invoice with changed details.
It is stopped by process, not software: confirm every bank detail change by phone using a number from an old invoice or the supplier's website, never from the email.
What to do
- Write the phone-confirmation rule down and make it the policy.
- Turn on two-factor authentication for every mailbox.
- Check mailbox forwarding rules; attackers add hidden ones.