Security News > 2022 > December > FBI warns that BEC attacks now also target food shipments
Organizations in the food sector are now also targeted in business email compromise attacks that aim to steal entire shipments of food, according to a joint advisory issued by several U.S. federal agencies.
As the FBI, the Food and Drug Administration Office of Criminal Investigations, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture revealed, the value of the stolen food reaches, in some cases, hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The advisory also warns that the criminals behind this BEC schemes may also repackage the stolen goods to resell them "Without regard for food safety regulations and sanitation practices, risking contamination."
"In recent incidents, criminal actors have targeted physical goods rather than wire transfers using BEC tactics," the advisory warns.
In May, the FBI revealed that losses due to BEC scams continue to grow each year significantly, with a 65% increase in identified global exposed losses recorded between July 2019 and December 2021.
As the FBI has said in the past, the success rate of BEC fraudsters is very high because they generally choose to impersonate someone the target trusts, like business partners or company executives.