"FBI: Thailand and Hong Kong Banks Used Most in BEC"

The FBI has warned that fraudsters have tried to steal over $43bn via business email compromise (BEC) attacks over the past six years, with Asian banks the primary recipients of stolen funds.  The FBI stated that between July 2019 and December 2021, there was a 65% increase in identified global exposed losses, meaning the dollar loss that includes both actual and attempted loss in United States dollars.  Although 140 countries have received stolen funds, banks in Thailand and Hong Kong were the most common destinations last year.  China came in third, followed by Mexico and Singapore.  The FBI noted that this matters because while they have a fairly good success rate (74%) in recovering funds lost to BEC, this is only in cases where domestic banks are used for the money transfers.  Many adversaries are increasingly converting stolen funds into cryptocurrency to improve money laundering efforts.  Often the adversaries open these cryptocurrency wallets using stolen identities.  BEC losses hit $2.4bn last year, around one-third of total cybercrime losses.

Infosecurity reports: "FBI: Thailand and Hong Kong Banks Used Most in BEC"