Ep 413 | They Don't Hack You: The Fraud Inside the Conversation

It has a name in federal statistics, business email compromise.

It's the second largest loss category in the entire federal fraud ledger.

Here's how it works.

And it's not what most people picture.

The criminal does not send you a suspicious email out of nowhere.

Those happen.

But this criminal gets access to a real email account somewhere in the chain, and then he waits.

Maybe it's the title company.

Maybe it's your vendor's bookkeeper.

It doesn't have to be your account.

It only has to be somebody in the conversation.

And then he reads.

He learns the closing date.

He learns the amount.

He learns how these people talk to each other.

He learns which day the wire goes out and who signs it.

Sometimes he sits in that inbox for weeks.

Understand the asymmetry of attention in that arrangement.

You're trying to close a deal and get through a Thursday.

He's doing exactly one thing.

You're paid to move fast.

He's paid to wait.

Then at exactly the right moment, he sends one message, correct details, correct tone, correct timing, new account number.

There's no misspelling to catch because he's not guessing at the story, he's in it.

And at the closing table is the only version of the house attached? The same method runs against every business in America under different costumes.