Business email compromise
Also called BEC, CEO fraud, invoice fraud
A scam where criminals pose as a boss, colleague or supplier, usually by email, to get a business to pay them or change bank details.
Business email compromise cost US victims over 3 billion dollars in 2025, by the FBI's count. It doesn't need malware. It needs one convincing message to the person who can move money.
The classic versions are the boss who needs an urgent, confidential transfer, and the supplier whose bank details have "changed". The most dangerous version uses a real account: criminals break into a supplier's mailbox, read the invoices, and reply in the same thread at the right moment.
AI has smoothed the edges. The FBI says chat tools now write official-sounding emails in a CEO's voice, and cloned voices are used to approve payments. In one case, a finance worker at the engineering firm Arup paid out about 25 million dollars after a video call where the "colleagues" were deepfakes.
For example
The finance team gets an email from a real supplier's address saying their bank has changed, with a polished new invoice attached.
Put it to use
Where you'll meet business email compromise in ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude, how to use it there, and the mix-up most people make.
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