Cyber scams hit American consumers for more than $100 million in 2010 and now we are learning they are turning their sights on a bigger prizes, the deep pockets of American businesses.
Businesses beware, scammers are after you. The FBI Says cyber attackers are tracking down businesses that make wire transfers. The scammers then pose as someone who typically receives those money transfers.
"They are then finding out who within the company requests the wire transfers and they are posing as that person, under the fake domain name, under that person's legitimately looking email address," said Rania Mankarious with Crime Stoppers.
If the companies real employee falls for it, the scammers are the ones getting the money.
"You are initiating a wire transfer to a fraudulent person," Mankarious said.
Another tactic, sending fake emails that seem to be from a real contractor doing legitimate business with a company. The attacker tells the person in charge of paying bills to update where payments are sent. The money then goes to the scammer, rather than the real contractor.
Making fake emails look real is easy enough, if you know how.
"It comes in you see an email from Shell Oil and you say OK, and if you deal with Shell Oil and you see it, all it takes is a little bit of information," said Alex Diaz with Top Tech Experts.
The way to keep from falling victim...
"You need to go back to the companies actual website. Do not click a link in the email, don't call the number in the signature. Go back to the company's original information and find out what you need to do," Mankarious said.
Most of these attacks are occurring within a single industry, but based on the success of these attacks, the FBI thinks that the attackers may expand their target group.
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