US small businesses are seeing a rise in the number of suspicious emails they are receiving, according to a report from HSB, a speciality insurance division on Munich Re.
In its survey, 58% of business executives stated the amount of suspicious emails they received in the past year had increased. Over a third (37%), said they received an email from someone pretending to be a senior manager or vendor requesting a payment.
Worryingly, 47% of employees responded to the emails by transferring funds, of which, 37% lost between $50,000 to $100,000 to the scams.
Only 11% of the victims lost less than $10,000.
These scams are fooling employees due to criminals gaining access to business email accounts and assuming false identities of company managers.
“Whether it’s a phishing scheme, fraud or malware, most cyber-attacks start with an email,” said Timothy Zeilman, vice president for HSB, part of Munich Re. “Even companies that have information security training and fairly savvy employees fall victim to these deceptions.”
Zeilman stated that with companies working remotely, the threat of business email schemes is rising.
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