SECURITY NOTICE: Business Email Compromise

In 2024, Business Email Compromise (BEC) accounted for 58% of all phishing attempts — and it’s one of the most financially devastating forms of cybercrime facing small and mid-sized businesses today.

BEC attacks are sophisticated scams where cybercriminals impersonate trusted contacts — like vendors, executives, or clients — to trick employees into transferring money or revealing sensitive information. These scams often target accounts payable (AP) and accounts receivable (AR) teams, inserting themselves into legitimate communication threads to reroute payments or collect valuable business data.

How BEC Scams Work

Attackers don’t always start with hacking. Many begin with phishing emails or spoofed domains that look nearly identical to real company addresses (think: ebelry.com instead of eberly.com). Once inside an inbox, they quietly monitor email threads and wait for the perfect opportunity to strike — often during invoicing or payment changes.

These threats can affect your business directly (when your company’s email is compromised) or indirectly (when a vendor’s or client’s system is breached). Either way, the result is the same: fraudulent payment requests and potential financial loss.

Spotting Red Flags

Protect your team by watching for these warning signs:

• Requests to change payment methods or banking details.
• Sudden updates to contact information from known partners.
• Emails that urge urgency or secrecy around financial transactions.

Best Practices to Prevent BEC

• Always verify payment changes through an independent, verifiable method — never by replying to the same email.
• Use outbound verification calls using trusted contact numbers from your internal records.
• Enable phishing-resistant multi-factor authentication (MFA) for all sensitive accounts.
• Train your staff regularly to recognize impersonation and phishing attempts.
• Review your cyber insurance policy to ensure it includes BEC coverage.

Learn How to Strengthen Your Defenses

Eberly Systems has created a free guide — “Business Email Compromise + Payment Fraud” — to help your team understand, identify, and prevent these scams before they impact your bottom line.

👉 Download the BEC Guide

This step-by-step resource covers how BEC attacks happen, common red flags, and the policies every AP/AR team should have in place to protect company funds.

Don’t wait for a breach to happen.
Start building safer communication and payment practices today — with help from Eberly Systems.