Security News > 2023 > February > Europol busts ‘CEO fraud’ gang that stole €38M in a few days
Europol has dismantled a Franco-Israeli 'CEO fraud' group that employed business email compromise attacks to divert payments from organizations to bank accounts under the threat actor's control.
The fraudsters impersonated CEOs when approaching employees in the target organizations' financial departments and tricked them into performing payments to bank accounts under the scammer's control.
Scammers may impersonate a contractor and request a payment out of the blue or impersonate the CEO to instruct the accountants to make an urgent transfer.
In December 2021, the attackers impersonated the CEO of a large French metallurgical company to divert €300,000 to a bank account in Hungary.
A few days later, the scammers attempted to steal another €500,000, but the transfer was stopped upon the victim realized the fraud and reported it to the police.
In a subsequent case, the scammers targeted a real estate developer in Paris, impersonating lawyers who supposedly worked for a renowned accounting company in the country.