May 10, 2022  — 
Eric Swotinsky

BEC scams grew by 65% in 2021

According to the FBI, business email compromise (BEC) scams grew by 65% last year. These attacks often start by spoofed emails that pretend to be a manager in your organization or government entity.

One of the classic themes is when the attacker pretends to be a company's chief finance officer or other ranking executive, requesting an outside wire transfer that must be initiated as soon as possible. These transfers, of course, end up in accounts controlled by cybercriminals.

From 2016 to 2019, the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) received reports of $43 billion in losses. BEC scams were the cybercrime type with the highest reported loss overall — $2.4 billion in the last year alone.

The Advanced Email Security pack for Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud detects and blocks BEC scam emails, preventing them from reaching users’ inboxes.