Fraudsters sought to steal USD 5.3 billion through schemes known as business email compromise from October 2013 through December 2016, the FBI said in a report released by its Internet Crime Complaint Center.
Furthermore, from May to December 2016 the number of business-email compromise cases, in which cyber criminals request wire transfers in emails that look like they are from senior corporate executives or business suppliers who regularly request payments, almost doubled, rising to 40,203 from 22,143, the FBI said.
In terms of geographical expansion of cyberattacks, the United States is by far the biggest target market, though fraudsters have started to expand in other developed countries, including Australia, Britain, France and Germany. Fraudsters have also used spoofed emails to trick corporate workers into releasing sensitive data, including wage and tax reports, according to the advisory.
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