Business Email Compromise
The Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) released an alert on July 12, 2018 in regards to business email compromise scams. Business Email Compromise scams consists of legitimate business and personal accounts becoming compromised, typically through social engineering, to conduct unauthorized transfers of funds. Instances have also been discovered to obtain Personally Identifiable Information (PII) or wage and tax statements.
This is a great reminder to be cautious while using email, as it is a favorite attack method for hackers. It is good practice to read emails carefully and verify their authenticity, especially if an action is requested within the email. If you are unsure if an email is legitimate, reach out to the sender and confirm with them. Do not just freely click on links within any email; try to verify their legitimacy by hovering over the link to view the URL. While this is not fool proof, it can quickly show you if the URL is what you see in the email.