“YOUR CORPORATE EMAIL ISN'T AS SAFE AS YOU THINK “

The discovery of an alleged international ring of fraudsters started with a one-l in  email. In April 2019,a company accountant received an email that appeared to be from the chief executive officer. “Joanna, can you mail out a check to a vendor today? Barbara,”the email said.

The mail had some hallmarks of a scam .But it also had a an unique attributes that in trigged cyber security experts at the company’s email security provider , Agari Data Inc. Using a fake email account posting as the company accountant, Agarisent back a reply .

“Hi Barbara , Yes ,of  course . Please send me the details for the payment,”the reply said .

Over the next several months , Agari said it was able to unravel what’s known as a business email compromise operation. Agari dubbed the group sending the email Exaggerated Lion, and said its members were based in Nigeria, Ghana and Kenya. Between April and august 2019,

Exaggerated Lion targeted over 3000 people at nearly 2100 companies , all in the US .

Similar email attacks are growing problem in the US, according to the latest FBI report.

In its simplest forms, a business email compromise operator will send an email posing as the CEO to an accounts payable department with an urgent request to transfer funds or fulfill a fake invoice.

In another example, payroll representative will receive an email appearing to be from an employee requesting to update their direct deposit information-often to a prepaid card account .

Companies often realize something is amiss only when its too late .

As the fake relationship progresses, mules are asked to launder larger sums of money.

Once an unsuspecting business parts with its cash, through a paper cheque or wire transfer ,Exaggerated Lions’s mules have a variety of ways to get the money back to them.