Security News > 2024 > August > INTERPOL Recovers $41 Million in Largest Ever BEC Scam in Singapore

INTERPOL said it devised a "Global stop-payment mechanism" that helped facilitate the largest-ever recovery of funds defrauded in a business email compromise scam.

The development comes after an unnamed commodity firm based in Singapore fell victim to a BEC scam in mid-July 2024.

Such attacks can take place in myriad ways, including gaining unauthorized access to a finance employee or a law firm's email account to send fake invoices or impersonating a third-party vendor to email a phony bill.

"On 15 July, the firm had received an email from a supplier requesting that a pending payment be sent to a new bank account based in Timor-Leste," INTERPOL said in a press statement.

By taking advantage of INTERPOL's Global Rapid Intervention of Payments mechanism, authorities in Singapore managed to detect $39 million and froze the counterfeit bank account a day later.

Back in June, I-GRIP was used to trace and intercept the illicit proceeds stemming from fiat and cryptocurrency crime, successfully recovering millions and intercepting hundreds of thousands of BEC accounts as part of a global police operation named First Light.

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