It can be an e-mail with a sender from the company management, in which the accounting department is instructed to transfer a large amount of money to a foreign account for supposedly justified reasons. Those affected also report of very well forged letter post in which appropriate instructions are given. In any case, the fraudulent senders have carried out detailed internal company research in advance, which is why the contents of the instructions appear so genuine. This procedure is called “social engineering” in the field of cybercrime. 

For years, the Federal Criminal Police Office has been counting increasing numbers of cases not only in cybercrime, but also in the area of so-called “CEO fraud”. A few years ago, the Bavarian automotive supplier Leoni AG, for example, made the headlines with a scam worth no less than 40 million Euros. Often, the damaged companies refrain from reporting about it for image reasons.

How can companies protect themselves from financial consequences of Fake President and cyberattacks? Read more about this here (German language).