Business Email Compromise: Red Flags Every Employee Must Know

TL;DR: Business Email Compromise is not a technical hack. It is a con job delivered through your inbox. Attackers impersonate your boss, your vendors, or your bank - then pressure someone on your team into wiring money or handing over sensitive data. This guide covers exactly how it works, what the warning signs look like, and what to do before you make a very expensive mistake.

Why Business Email Compromise Is Bleeding Small Businesses Dry

Let me tell you something I have seen more times than I care to count. A small business owner walks into Fix My PC Store, sits down across from me, and tells me they just lost $40,000. Sometimes more. Not because someone cracked their server. Not because of some exotic piece of malware. Because somebody on their team got an email that looked like it came from the boss, and they wired the money without picking up the phone first.

That is business email compromise. And in 2026, it is still the number one cause of financial loss from cybercrime for businesses of all sizes. The FBI has tracked losses in the billions annually across the United States, and Microsoft's guidance on protecting yourself from phishing and email fraud makes it clear this is not slowing down anytime soon.

Here in Palm Beach County, small and mid-sized businesses are prime targets. Attackers love companies that have real money moving through them but do not have a dedicated IT security team watching the door. If that sounds like your business, keep reading.

What Is a Business Email Compromise Attack, Really

People hear "cyberattack" and they picture some guy in a hoodie typing furiously in a dark room. BEC scams are not that. They are social engineering attacks. Which is a fancy way of saying somebody lied to you very convincingly via email.

The attacker does their homework first. They look at your company's website, your LinkedIn, your social media. They figure out who the CEO is, who handles accounts payable, who your vendors are. Then they craft an email that looks completely legitimate - right down to the signature block and the tone of voice.

No virus. No malicious attachment (usually). Just a believable lie, delivered at the right moment, to the right person, with a sense of urgency attached to it.

Back in my day, scams came through the fax machine and you could smell them from a mile away. These days the fakes are polished enough to fool people who should know better. That is not an insult. That is just the reality of how good these attacks have gotten.

What Does a BEC Attack Actually Look Like

There are a few flavors of this scam, and your team needs to know all of them.

CEO Impersonation

This is the classic. Someone sends an email that appears to come from the owner or CEO. The message is brief, urgent, and asks an employee to wire money to a new account or purchase gift cards immediately. The email might say something like: "I am in a meeting and cannot talk. Please handle this wire transfer today. Do not discuss with anyone else."

That last part - "do not discuss with anyone else" - is the tell. Legitimate executives do not ask you to keep financial transactions secret from the rest of the team.

Vendor Invoice Fraud

The attacker compromises or spoofs a vendor's email address. They send your accounts payable team an invoice that looks exactly like the ones you have been paying for years. Except the bank routing number has quietly changed. Your team pays it. The money goes to the attacker. Your actual vendor never sees a dime and eventually calls you wondering why the bill is overdue.

By the time you figure it out, the money is gone. Wire transfers are not like credit card charges. There is no dispute process. There is no chargeback. You are just out the money.

Payroll Redirect Scams

An employee - or someone pretending to be one - emails HR or payroll and asks to update their direct deposit information before the next pay cycle. The new account belongs to the attacker. The employee does not get paid. The attacker does. This one is particularly nasty because it victimizes your own staff.

Attorney or Legal Impersonation

You get an email from someone claiming to be a lawyer handling a confidential transaction. They need you to wire funds or provide financial information urgently. The confidentiality angle is designed to make you feel like you cannot verify it with anyone. That urgency and secrecy combination is a massive red flag every single time.

Red Flags Your Team Needs to Recognize Before Acting

Here is the practical part. Print this out. Tape it to the wall next to the coffee maker. I am not joking.

The Urgency Red Flag

Any financial request that needs to happen right now, today, before you can verify anything - that is pressure. Pressure is a sales tactic and a scam tactic. Legitimate business transactions can survive a phone call to confirm.

The Secrecy Red Flag

If the email asks you not to discuss the request with colleagues, your manager, or anyone else, stop. Full stop. Legitimate requests do not come with gag orders attached.

The Changed Payment Details Red Flag

Any invoice or payment request that includes new or updated banking information should be verified by phone - using a number you already have on file, not one provided in the email itself. This one simple step would prevent the majority of vendor invoice fraud cases I have seen come through this shop.

The Slightly Off Email Address Red Flag

Look closely. Not at the display name - anyone can set a display name to anything. Look at the actual email address. ceo@yourcompany.com is legitimate. ceo@yourcompany-inc.com is not. The difference can be one character. Attackers count on you not checking.

The Unusual Request Red Flag

Your CFO has never once asked you to buy $500 in Google Play gift cards and email the codes. If the request would have seemed bizarre six months ago, it is still bizarre now, even if it appears to come from someone you trust.

What to Do When Something Feels Off

Here is the rule, and I want you to memorize it: verify out of band. That means if you get a suspicious email, you verify the request using a completely different communication channel. Pick up the phone. Walk down the hall. Send a text. Do not reply to the email to ask if the email is legitimate. That is like asking the suspicious stranger if they are trustworthy.

Your team should also understand that it is not rude to slow down and verify. It is not insubordinate to say "I just want to confirm this with you directly before I process it." Any real CEO or manager will respect that. If someone gets angry at you for verifying a wire transfer request, that is information worth having.

Beyond the human side of this, you also need technical defenses in place. Our business cybersecurity services include email security configurations that can catch spoofed domains before they ever reach your inbox. That is not a guarantee, but it is a much better starting position than no filter at all.

And look - if something does get through and you click something you should not have, get it looked at immediately. A compromised machine can be used to launch further attacks from inside your own network. Our professional virus and malware removal service exists for exactly this situation. Do not wait and hope it resolves itself. It will not.

What Small Businesses in Palm Beach County Can Do Right Now

I am going to give you a short, boring list of things that actually work. No buzzwords. No expensive enterprise software you do not need.

Establish a Verbal Verification Policy

Any wire transfer over a set dollar amount - you pick the number, maybe $1,000, maybe $5,000 - requires a phone confirmation using a known number before it gets processed. Write this down. Make it official. Train your team on it. Then enforce it without exceptions.

Set Up Multi-Factor Authentication on Email

If an attacker cannot get into your email account, they cannot send fraudulent messages from your actual address. Multi-factor authentication is free on most platforms and takes twenty minutes to set up. There is no excuse for not having it in 2026.

Train Your Team More Than Once a Year

A single annual security awareness meeting is not training. It is a checkbox. Real training means regular reminders, real examples, and a culture where employees feel comfortable raising a flag when something looks wrong. Malwarebytes has solid resources on BEC tactics that are worth bookmarking for ongoing team education.

Back Up Your Data Regularly

BEC scams sometimes arrive as the first step in a broader attack. If an attacker gets into your systems, you want a clean backup to fall back on. Our business data backup solutions are designed for exactly this kind of situation. If you do not have a current backup, you do not have data. You are just borrowing it until something goes wrong.

The Bottom Line on Business Email Compromise

I have been fixing computers and cleaning up after security disasters for a long time. The technology changes. The scams get slicker. But the core mistake is always the same: somebody acted fast when they should have slowed down.

Business email compromise is not unstoppable. It is not some sophisticated nation-state attack that only Fortune 500 companies have to worry about. It is a con job that works because people are busy, they trust the names they recognize, and nobody told them to stop and verify first.

Now somebody has told you. Pass it along to your team.

If you are a business owner in West Palm Beach, Boca Raton, Lake Worth, Boynton Beach, or anywhere else in Palm Beach County, and you want someone to actually look at your email security setup and tell you where the gaps are - not sell you a bunch of software you do not need - give us a call. That is what we do.