What does business email compromise mean?
Business email compromise is fraud carried out by email in a business's name.
Last read from the sources at the foot of this page.
What does business email compromise mean?
BEC is a scam targeting businesses or individuals working with suppliers and/or businesses regularly performing wire transfer payments.
The FBI's 2025 Internet Crime Report counts more than three billion US dollars in reported business email compromise losses, about seven times the losses it records for data breaches.
It is done in three ways: an email forged on the firm's own domain, an email from a look-alike name, or an email from a real mailbox someone has already taken over. The first two leave marks in public records before any money moves; the third does not.
The moment it aims at is the one where money is due: an invoice, a closing, a draw request, a payroll change. A call back on a number already on file, before paying any changed details, is the habit that stops it.
Where does it show up in a reading?
In a LeakTrace reading it is read under “Forged email in your name”: the records that tell inboxes whether to refuse email sent as you (DMARC, SPF and DKIM).
In a LeakTrace reading it is read under “Look-alike names”: names made from yours, each asked whether it is registered and set up for mail.
In a LeakTrace reading it is read under “Firm addresses in breach data”: breach records for addresses at your own domain.
Which pages use this term?
Where does this come from?
- FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center, 2025 IC3 Annual Reportic3.govRead 1 November 2026
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