{"meta":{"database":"Global Social Engineering Impact Database","license":"CC BY 4.0 — attribute to Netarx Social Engineering Incident Database","url":"https://global-social-engineering-impact-da.vercel.app/incidents/2024-fbi-ic3-reports-2-77-billion-in-bec-losses-for-2024-context-baseline"},"incident":{"title":"FBI IC3 reports $2.77 billion in BEC losses for 2024 (context baseline)","date":"2024","date_precision":"year","victim_org":"Aggregate: U.S. and international BEC victims reporting to FBI IC3","sector":"Other","country":"United States","primary_vector":"Business Email Compromise","secondary_vectors":["Vendor / Supply Chain Impersonation","Credential Phishing Portal"],"ai_involvement":"Unknown","ai_notes":"The IC3 annual report does not break out AI-enabled BEC as a separate category; separate FBI PSAs have documented deepfake audio and virtual-meeting impersonation used in BEC.","outcomes":["Wire Fraud / Financial Loss"],"loss_usd":2770151146,"loss_note":"2024 IC3 Annual Report: 21,442 BEC complaints and $2,770,151,146 in adjusted losses. Cumulatively, IC3 recorded 277,918 BEC incidents and roughly $50.9 billion in exposed losses globally from October 2013 through December 2022.","records_affected":null,"threat_actor":null,"summary":"The FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center's 2024 annual report recorded 21,442 business email compromise complaints with adjusted losses of $2,770,151,146, keeping BEC among the costliest reported cybercrime categories. A separate IC3 public service announcement in June 2023 put cumulative global BEC exposure at approximately $50.9 billion across 277,918 incidents between October 2013 and December 2022, and reported that real estate-sector BEC losses reached $446.1 million in 2022, up 72 percent from 2020.","how_it_worked":"IC3 describes a consistent mechanism across reported cases: criminals compromise or spoof an email account belonging to an executive, employee, vendor or transaction professional, monitor correspondence to identify a pending payment, and then send instructions substituting attacker-controlled bank details. Real estate closings are heavily targeted because buyers, sellers, attorneys, title companies and agents all exchange payment instructions under time pressure. Funds increasingly route to cryptocurrency exchanges and third-party payment processors, with Hong Kong, China, the United Kingdom, Mexico and Singapore among leading destinations. IC3's Recovery Asset Team initiates the Financial Fraud Kill Chain, and most kill-chain requests involve BEC.","lessons":"Reporting a diverted wire to IC3 and the originating bank within 24 to 72 hours is the highest-value response control, and pre-transaction verification of wire instructions is the highest-value prevention control.","confidence":"Confirmed","sources":[{"title":"2024 Internet Crime Report","url":"https://www.ic3.gov/AnnualReport/Reports/2024_IC3Report.pdf","publisher":"FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center"},{"title":"Business Email Compromise: The $50 Billion Scam","url":"https://www.ic3.gov/PSA/2023/PSA230609","publisher":"FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center"}],"entry_type":"benchmark","slug":"2024-fbi-ic3-reports-2-77-billion-in-bec-losses-for-2024-context-baseline","year":2024,"loss_kind":"aggregate","url":"https://global-social-engineering-impact-da.vercel.app/incidents/2024-fbi-ic3-reports-2-77-billion-in-bec-losses-for-2024-context-baseline"}}