CSO reported:
The first email appears to come from the company's CEO and informs the recipient that the organization is in the process of acquiring a new company, but that the transaction is supervised by financial market authorities and needs to remain confidential until a public announcement is made to avoid any insider trading.
If the recipient agrees to assist, the follow-up email provides more information about the acquisition, such as the location of the company and the need to make an “installment” payment to ensure the acquisition before competitors might get wind of it. This is also where the targeted employee is handed off to a second persona by being told to contact an attorney who specializes in acquisitions.
When this second attorney persona is contacted, the attackers respond with the bank account information and the amount that needs to be transferred. The communication in this second part of the scam is not always done by email and in some cases the fake attorney asked to speak over a WhatsApp voice call.
"An analysis of potential financial impact data across all payment fraud attacks shows the average amount requested is $65,000," the researchers said. "In contrast, this group requests an average of $712,000—more than 10 times the average."
Find the original article and read more here.
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The first email appears to come from the company's CEO and informs the recipient that the organization is in the process of acquiring a new company, but that the transaction is supervised by financial market authorities and needs to remain confidential until a public announcement is made to avoid any insider trading.
If the recipient agrees to assist, the follow-up email provides more information about the acquisition, such as the location of the company and the need to make an “installment” payment to ensure the acquisition before competitors might get wind of it. This is also where the targeted employee is handed off to a second persona by being told to contact an attorney who specializes in acquisitions.
When this second attorney persona is contacted, the attackers respond with the bank account information and the amount that needs to be transferred. The communication in this second part of the scam is not always done by email and in some cases the fake attorney asked to speak over a WhatsApp voice call.
"An analysis of potential financial impact data across all payment fraud attacks shows the average amount requested is $65,000," the researchers said. "In contrast, this group requests an average of $712,000—more than 10 times the average."
Find the original article and read more here.
Enroll in Training Sessions: Last Thursday of Every Month is Training on Frauds and New Scam Alerts and How to Combat