Fraud | July 2024 How to identify and prevent the most prevalent cyber scam

Yes, but the process is time sensitive. Nacha maintains a two-day return deadline for business accounts from the date of the initial fraudulent transaction. If an illicit debit obtained through a BEC is identified, notifying the receiving bank as quickly as possible increases your chances of successfully placing a hold on those funds and getting a return.

Yes. Email account compromise (EAC) happens when a hacker takes control of a legitimate email account. Then they use the account to email requests for sensitive information or money. For example, one of your suppliers sends you a message requesting payment—but the bank account number doesn’t match the one on previous invoices. This could be legitimate, or it could be a sign that the email was compromised. In such cases, contact the sender directly (not by email) and ask them to confirm.

Social engineering fraud is a type of cybercrime in which scammers try to gain someone’s trust to extract information or money from them. This is often done through phishing—sending fake email requests—or through business email compromise, a type of phishing directed at companies.

The quality of text, audio, image, and video impersonations created by generative AI varies but is constantly improving. In its early days, photorealistic reproductions of humans proved challenging, with AI often misplacing noses and adding extra fingers to hands. Today, the technology is advancing rapidly. And voice clones have been persuasive enough to trick targets into transferring millions of dollars to scammers.

Companies like Intel, Sentinel, and Microsoft already have products on the market to detect video and image deepfakes. Also in the works are potentially paradigm-shifting initiatives like McAfee’s Project Mockingbird. These and other cutting-edge systems use an array of techniques to successfully identify AI-powered audio impersonations.

This fraud strategy has the potential to threaten all industries. But the possibility for a large financial payoff from a single successful attack has made financial institutions and insurance companies hackers’ prime targets—and has led many big names in those industries to implement AI in cybersecurity countermeasures.

No. A wire transfer is a one-time, fast-moving, domestic or international transaction between two financial institutions that requires higher user fees and is capable of moving large sums of money. ACH transfers are similar but can be set up on a recurring basis, are exclusively domestic, typically move slower than wires, have minimal user fees, and are used in a wider range of transfers, such as bank deposits and peer-to-peer apps like Venmo and Cash App.

Electronic funds transfers, or EFTs, happen whenever money is digitally moved between banks. They occur without the intervention of bank employees, don’t require paper documentation, and are the most common form of bank transfer.

While recovering money from a completed wire transfer is nearly impossible, the transaction can be reversed—if it’s caught and stopped before your account has been debited.

At the federal level, contact the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) and the Federal Trade Commission. You’ll need to provide each with a copy of the initial communication—that is, the email (if you were phished) or voice transcript of a call (if you were vished). Also, contact the financial crime department of your State Identification Bureau, as well as local law enforcement.