Cyber fraudsters reap US$2.3bil through email wire-transfer scams

Unscrupulous behaviour: A securities fraud scheme involving hacked inside information was uncovered.

BOSTON: Businesses have lost billions of dollars to fast-growing scams where fraudsters impersonate company executives in e-mails that order staff to transfer to accounts controlled by criminals, according to the US Federal Bureau of Investigation. 

Losses from these scams, which are known as "business e-mail compromise," totalled more than US$2.3bil (RM9.03bil) from October 2013 through February of this year, the FBI said in an alert issued this week, citing reports to law enforcement agencies around the globe.