Inside the Operations of a West African Cybercrime Group

By Kevin Townsend on June 05, 2019

An Inside Look at the Evolution of a West African Cybercriminal Startup Turned BEC Enterprise

Following an unsuccessful business email compromise (BEC) attack against a security firm, researchers have used active defense techniques to gain unprecedented insight into a Nigerian scamming group. The initial attack purported to be an email from the firm's CEO asking the CFO to instigate "a domestic wire transfer to a vendor."

Over the last few years, BEC has become one of the most profitable of all cybercrimes. The latest report from the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) for 2018 states that 20,373 victims lost a total of $1.3 billion to BEC. This was the single largest category of reported internet crime, representing approximately 48% of the total losses of $2.7 billion. However, the remaining $1.4 billion loss clearly demonstrates that BEC is not the only con in town.

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