Why E-Mail Scams Are The Worst Of Them All
In the world of fraud, find out why email scams are the absolute worst offenders.
This article is more than 2 years old
Cyber scams through email seem like a phenomenon of the past. In the 2000s, chain mail was sent out incessantly, with spooky tales and ominous threats to scare your friends and family. Though these forms of messages were relatively innocuous, email scams of today are undeniably financially hazardous. For two Californians, a cyber fraud was able to bump their bank account into the millions.
For Moe and Kateryna Abourched, the money that instantaneously multiplied in their bank account is accredited to some form of miracle. A specific email scam called business email compromise is to blame for this devastating robbery. The couple allegedly was able to trick a Michigan school district into directing their monthly health insurance fees to a California ban account. The money was transferred to the account of the couple’s nail salon, eventually tieing the two to the cybercrime.
A business email compromise is a type of cybercrime where individuals hack into an email account and pretend to be a business with the intention of stealing money. Though these email scams don’t get the same type of attention massive ransomware attacks or cyber breaches get, these fraudulent scams can garner the most money from unsuspecting victims. According to the FBI, email scams have been the most costly overall, extracting millions of dollars from innocent internet users. The FBI stated that these particular cyber scams could cost the economy billions of dollars per year, a substantial amount of money the government seems to be foolishly disregarding.
Email scams are so lucrative and unmonitored that scammers can boast online about their exorbitant expenses without much consequence. Authorities have found these criminals by checking their social media posts, noticing their sudden extravagant purchases as a possible tie to the alleged fraud. For the most part, email scams are low risk because of the lack of media attention and judicial seriousness.
Unfortunately for the United States, email scams of this caliber have spiked in the last couple of years. In 2021, business email compromises cost the economy $2.4 billion, a 33% increase from the previous year. There was an even more significant jump between 2020 and 2013, with email scams accelerating in popularity by tenfold. This rise in fraudulent emails has increasingly cost taxpayers in America and will continue to grow as long as law enforcement stays unorganized.
For those committing these types of cybercrime, they apply a few different tactics to trick unsuspecting recipients. Targeted phishing emails are a standard attack, where a scammer utilizes relevant information to get the recipient to reveal personal documents like credit card numbers or bank account pins. Though in recent years, scammers have elevated their technique to AI-generated voice messages mimicking an executive at a business, deceiving recipients into thinking they’re communicating with a respectable figure. Though these email scams are becoming more advanced, spreading awareness of hackers’ techniques will only help protect the public more thoroughly.
As long as people had public access to the internet, cybercrime has been a never-ending issue. Though there are various cyber scams out on the web, email scams are the most costly. Spotting the signs of cyber fraud will help preserve your financial security and private information.
