Smart Practices to Combat Business Email Compromise

Email has been relied on within the real estate industry for years to facilitate transactions between parties. And for good reason. It is a fast, convenient, accessible and cost-effective method of communication.

But email can provide an opportunity for social engineering tactics. Criminals find real estate closings to be a particularly attractive target due to the large sums of money involved. The industry’s increased focus on more online and mobile transactions in lieu of in-person meetings has helped fuel an upsurge of business email compromise (BEC).

The problem of BEC has become so prevalent that it has caught the attention of the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN). A recent analysis determined that BEC incidents are a growing cybercrime concern for the real estate sector.¹ Discovering how to mitigate the challenges presented by BEC is key to defusing the activities of increasingly sophisticated criminals.

Read our article to learn:

• Why is BEC so successful
• Who are the perpetrators of BEC
• Who are BEC’s prime victims
• Strategies for combating BEC

¹ https://www.fincen.gov/sites/default/files/shared/Financial_Trend_Analysis_BEC_FINAL.pdf