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Cyber Series

The Email That Belonged There

Thursday, 3:38 PM.

Dana Brooks received an invoice from a vendor her company had worked with for six years.

Correct project.

Correct amount.

Correct email thread.

One sentence was new:

“Our banking information has changed. Please use the updated ACH instructions attached.”

Dana updated the payment details and released $86,400.

On Monday, the vendor called.

“We still haven’t received payment.”

Dana frowned. “I sent it Thursday.”

A pause.

“Dana… we never changed banks.”

The money was gone.

What Happened?

The attacker didn’t send an obvious phishing email.

They had compromised a legitimate business email account, watched real conversations, and waited for the right invoice.

Then they changed one thing:

Where the money was going.

This is Business Email Compromise (BEC), a fraud tactic the FBI has repeatedly warned businesses about.

The most dangerous part?

Almost everything in the email can be real.

The vendor.
The invoice.
The project.
The conversation.

Only the payment instructions are fake.

Protect the Payment

Any request to change banking or payment information should be verified using a known phone number already on file.

Never trust contact information included in the change request itself.

For larger payments, require a second employee to approve banking changes.

And if money is sent to the wrong account, contact your bank immediately and report the incident at IC3.gov.

The Golden Rule

Cybercriminals don’t always create a new conversation.

Sometimes they quietly enter one that already exists.

Trust the relationship. Verify the transaction.

Content by 2inOne Security Group | Cyber Education