Georgia Cyber Fraud Task Force Launched By State Prosecutors

GEORGIA — The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia has joined forces with Metro-Atlanta District Attorneys, the Office of the Attorney General, the FBI Atlanta Field Office, U.S. Secret Service, state, and local law enforcement to combat the criminal movement of cyber fraud proceeds through banks in the Atlanta area by employing Business Email Compromise fraud schemes.

“We are grateful for the participation and commitment of our metro District Attorneys to come together in a coordinated effort to address this criminal enterprise,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Kurt Erskine. “The money mules that facilitate the transfer of fraud proceeds make these cyber fraud crimes lucrative. Interrupting that flow of money is an important part of disrupting the criminal enterprise. Working together creates a strong network of prosecutors and law enforcement, across counties, who are addressing the problem through criminal prosecution and community outreach. It is this kind of intelligence and resource sharing that make our law enforcement efforts more effective and our businesses and citizens safer.”

Business Email Compromises exploit the fact that so many of us rely on email to conduct business—both personal and professional. In a Business Email Compromise scam, criminals send an email message that appears to come from a known source making a legitimate request, as in the examples below:

• A vendor a company regularly uses sends an invoice with an updated bank account number.
• A company CEO asks their assistant to purchase dozens of gift cards to send out as employee rewards, and then asks for the serial numbers, so they can email them out right away.

A homebuyer receives a message from their title company with instructions on how to wire the down payment. In scams like these, the unsuspecting victim sends thousands—or even hundreds of thousands—of dollars to the criminal.

“Those perpetrating BEC scams can target anyone who relies on email for both personal and professional communications,” said Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr. “In fact, in recent years, the FBI reported BEC crimes account for 40 percent of all cybercrime losses. Our Prosecution Division is joining federal, state and local partners to educate Georgia citizens and businesses about the telltale signs and stop the criminals facilitating this crime.”

Over the last five years, Business Email Compromise crimes have evolved into the predominant cyber threat businesses face. In 2020, the FBI IC3 – the primary law enforcement arm to combat Business Email Compromise crimes – reported 1,303 incidents with $462,967,963.72 in losses and $380,211,432.04 reported frozen by financial partners (yielding a 79 percent success rate of funds frozen).

“The FBI makes it a top priority to investigate these cyber-crimes that have affected thousands of victims, many of them elderly citizens, small businesses, and people whose entire livelihoods have been wiped out by scammers,” said Chris Hacker, Special Agent in Charge of FBI Atlanta. “But it takes more than one law enforcement agency. Together with our federal, state, and local partners we are taking on this problem by educating our community and investigating and prosecuting criminals to make it less lucrative to commit these crimes.”

From global reporting, comprised of multiple law enforcement and financial partners, between 2016 and 2019, businesses have lost at least $26 billion as a result of Business Email Compromise scams. Based on the most recent FBI IC3 report, losses from Business Email Compromise attacks grew another 6 percent in 2020—accounting for 45 percent of all cybercrime losses over the course of the year.

Surprisingly, a quarter of all Business Email Compromise attackers had a home base in the United States. Nearly half of U.S.-based Business Email Compromise actors were located in five states with clusters of actors around a handful of metro areas, including the metro-Atlanta area.

By making a coordinated and concerted effort to focus on suspects moving fraud proceeds in the metro-Atlanta area, the Cyber Fraud Task Force hopes to disrupt the financial structure that makes Business Email Compromise fraud schemes so lucrative for criminals. Additionally, the task force aims to partner with community leaders and organizers to educate the public about avoiding these scams.