Companies better take note of CEO impersonation fraud

PEOPLE and businesses demand that they have access to their money and payments anytime and anywhere they want. To meet customer expectations, the number of programs and apps to transfer funds electronically has grown exponentially in recent years. New technology offers a convenient and quick way to send and receive payments.

In line with this growth, however, fraudsters are aware of the high potential transaction value of electronic funds transfer, and are turning to illegal means, including impersonating high-level executives, to fraudulently steal huge amounts of money from businesses.

This relatively new but rapidly increasing type of electronic funds transfer fraud - called "CEO impersonation fraud" or simply "CEO fraud" - has paralysed many organisations over the past few years. This is how it works: Fraudsters pretend to be high-level executives, for example chairman or CEO of the company; they create bogus messages which ask employees to wire funds across to them into a specific bank account located outside the country. The messages deceive employees into transferring large amounts of cash electronically. Once the money is received, it is quickly transferred in another country and both criminals and transferred funds then disappear.