Business email compromise

What it means

A scammer pretends to be an executive, vendor, client, or employee and asks for a payment, invoice change, payroll change, or sensitive file.

Example

An email that appears to come from the CEO asks accounting to wire money to a new vendor account today.

Warning signs

• The payment instructions changed suddenly.
• The message asks for secrecy or speed.
• The sender address is slightly different.
• The request bypasses normal approval steps.

Safer next steps

• Verify payment changes by phone using a known number.
• Follow internal approval procedures.
• Do not rely only on email for financial changes.
• Report suspicious requests to IT or security.