Security News > 2020 > February > Community Housing Nonprofit Hit with $1.2M Loss in BEC Scam

A non-profit community housing collective has been swindled out of more than $1.2 million in a business email compromise campaign.

Red Kite Community Housing, a coop housing association in High Wycombe, U.K. announced in a recent website notice that £932,000 of the money paid into its coffers by tenant-owners was transferred to cybercrooks thanks to a convincing domain-spoofing effort.

The attack happened in August, after which Red Kite notified its members, and engaged an outside cyber-forensics firm, local police and the Regulator of Social Housing.

The Manor Independent School District in the Austin, Texas area lost $2.3 million, after falling victim to an email scam that ran for nearly two months at the end of 2019.

According to the latest annual Internet Crime Report from the FBI, individuals suffer BEC scams too: One victim received an email purporting to be from a closing agent during a real-estate transaction - resulting in the person initiating a wire transfer of $50,000 to a fraudster's bank account located in New York.

News URL

https://threatpost.com/community-housing-nonprofit-bec-scam/152563/