Business Email Compromise (BEC) & Business Fraud Articles
Learn how Business Email Compromise, CEO fraud, vendor invoice scams, payroll diversion, and wire transfer fraud affect organizations — and how to stop them before money is lost.
Understanding Business Email Compromise (BEC) and business payment fraud
Business Email Compromise, often called BEC, is one of the most damaging forms of fraud affecting businesses today. In a typical BEC attack, a scammer impersonates a trusted person or organization to convince an employee to send money, change banking details, release payroll or tax records, or share sensitive internal information. These scams frequently target accounting teams, payroll staff, office managers, executives, HR personnel, and anyone involved in approvals or vendor payments.
Many business fraud attacks begin with phishing emails, spoofed domains, compromised mailboxes, or carefully timed impersonation messages. A criminal may pose as a CEO demanding a confidential wire transfer. Another may pretend to be a vendor requesting updated invoice payment instructions. In other cases, scammers impersonate employees and try to reroute payroll through fraudulent direct deposit changes. Because these requests often look routine and arrive at the right moment, businesses can lose money before anyone realizes the message was fake.
This business fraud hub explains how Business Email Compromise works, how executive impersonation and vendor invoice scams are carried out, what payroll diversion looks like, and what immediate recovery steps to take if your organization already sent money to a scammer. If you want to reduce risk, improve internal verification habits, and train employees to stop fraud before it spreads, this section is built to help.
Featured business fraud articles
Explore practical guides covering BEC scams, executive impersonation, invoice fraud, payroll diversion, and urgent wire-fraud recovery actions for organizations.
What Is Business Email Compromise (BEC)? How It Works
Understand how Business Email Compromise attacks use impersonation, urgency, and trust to steal money, banking details, or sensitive company information.
CEO Fraud Explained: Executive Impersonation Scams
Learn how attackers impersonate executives, owners, or managers to pressure employees into sending wires, gift cards, or confidential data.
Vendor Invoice Scam Red Flags and Prevention
See how invoice fraud works, why vendor payment instructions are changed, and how to verify banking updates before money is lost.
Payroll Diversion Scam: How Employee Paychecks Get Redirected
Find out how criminals impersonate employees to steal wages by changing direct deposit information inside payroll systems.
Sent a Wire to a Scammer? Immediate Business Recovery Steps
Take fast action with bank notifications, recall requests, evidence preservation, and internal response steps after business wire fraud.
What businesses should focus on first
- Verify payment changes independently: Never trust bank updates or invoice changes from email alone.
- Train finance, payroll, and HR teams: These roles are common targets in BEC and impersonation scams.
- Use dual approval for financial actions: Require more than one person for wires, ACH changes, and sensitive record requests.
- Protect email accounts: Use multi-factor authentication and review suspicious logins or mailbox rules.
- Build a response plan now: If fraud happens, quick action gives your business the best chance to limit damage.
For deeper guidance, start with What Is Business Email Compromise (BEC)? and then review the recovery steps in Sent a Wire to a Scammer? Immediate Business Recovery Steps.