Global BEC scam volume 2020

This statistic presents the number of seen business email compromise (BEC) scams from 2017 to 2020. According to the findings, in 2020 there was a total of 17,607 seen attempts at implementing a BEC scam, up from 13,055 at the end of 2019.

Number of seen business email compromise (BEC) scam attempts worldwide from 2017 to 2020

Characteristic	Number of seen attempts
2017	9,708
2018	12,472
2019	13,055
2020	17,607

Loading statistic...

Download

Source

Show detailed source information?

Already a member?

Source

Use Ask Statista Research Service

Release date

February 2021

More information

Region

Worldwide

Survey time period

2017 to 2020

Special properties

Trend Micro Smart Protection Network infrastructure; wider industry metrics may vary

Supplementary notes

BEC = Business Email Compromise (BEC) also known as “CEO Fraud”.
BEC is defined as a sophisticated scam targeting businesses working with foreign suppliers and/or businesses that regularly perform wire transfer payments. The scam is carried out by compromising legitimate business e-mail accounts through social engineering or computer intrusion techniques to conduct unauthorized transfers of funds.
Data refers to the number of BEC attempts seen, which does not indicate whether the attacks were successful.

Citation formats