---
title: "Business email compromise (BEC)"
url: https://carrierkyc.com/glossary/business-email-compromise
description: "Business email compromise (BEC) is a scam in which criminals use a hacked or spoofed business email account to trick someone into sending money or sensitive data."
---

# Business email compromise (BEC)

**Definition:** Business email compromise (BEC) is a scam in which criminals use a hacked or spoofed business email account to trick someone into sending money or sensitive data.

Also called: BEC, Email account compromise, EAC. Category: Fraud.

The FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) describes BEC as a sophisticated scam that often relies on taking over legitimate email accounts through social engineering or computer intrusion. IC3 counted about $55.5 billion in exposed losses worldwide from October 2013 through December 2023.

In freight factoring, BEC usually arrives as a payment change. An email from a client's real or spoofed address asks you to update its bank account. An email that appears to come from a factor tells brokers to send payments to a new account. Or a message posing as a debtor asks for invoice copies or statements to be sent somewhere new.

> **Red flag: Red flags** Urgency, often just before a large payment. A reply-to address that differs from the sender. A new phone number in the signature, offered as the way to confirm. A voided check from a bank the client has never used. IC3 advises verifying account-change requests through a secondary channel and checking that the sender's address really matches.

Never act on a bank change by email alone. Call back at a number you held before the request, confirm the account belongs to the carrier, and hold the next payment until it is verified. The [remit-to change checklist](https://carrierkyc.com/tools/remit-change-checklist) sets out the full procedure.

## Related

- [Remit-to change](https://carrierkyc.com/glossary/remit-to-change)
- [Lookalike domain](https://carrierkyc.com/glossary/lookalike-domain)
- [Account takeover (ATO)](https://carrierkyc.com/glossary/account-takeover)
- [How to verify a remit-to or bank-account change: an SOP for factors](https://carrierkyc.com/guides/remit-to-change-verification)
- [Bank-change verification checklist](https://carrierkyc.com/tools/remit-change-checklist)

## Sources

- [FBI IC3: Business Email Compromise: The $55 Billion Scam](https://www.ic3.gov/PSA/2024/PSA240911) (Public service announcement I-091124-PSA, 2024-09-11)
- [FBI IC3: Business email compromise](https://www.ic3.gov/CrimeInfo/BEC) (Internet Crime Complaint Center)