Success Story: CAFC and USSS freeze $1.1M
On October 7th, 2021 the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre and the United States Secret Service (USSS) along with a financial institution were able to freeze a $1.1 million fraudulent transfer.
The funds were frozen less than 24 hours after the Ontario-based business reported to the CAFC that they were a victim of a Spear Phishing incident. As a result, the business is well positioned to recover almost 95% of the amount.
Spear Phishing is one of the most common and most dangerous attack methods currently used to conduct fraud, usually on businesses and organizations. Fraudsters take their time to collect information on their intended targets, so they can send convincing emails seemingly from a trusted source.
Fraudsters will infiltrate or spoof a business or individual email account. They create a rule to send copies of incoming emails forwarded to one of their own accounts. They comb through these emails to:
- study the sender’s use of language
- look for patterns linked to important contacts, payments, and dates
Learn how to protect yourself!
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