Risk & Business Magazine Lovitt & Touché Fall 2015 | Seite 8

Impersonation Fraud
It Could Happen to You!

BY: DENNIS M. TSONIS, CPCU, SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, LOVITT & TOUCHÉ

I

mpersonation fraud is nothing new.
Everyone has heard of the Trojan horse
myth. While computers offer greater
means to control and automate many
processes, when it comes to electronic
communications, such as email, they
allow criminals the ability to easily
impersonate someone of authority to
trick you into willingly letting them past
your built-in security.

A world-wide trend is occurring where
businesses are being targeted by
organized fraudsters in a number of
impersonation scams. According to the
Association for Financial Professionals
2014 Payments Fraud and Controls
Report, 62% of organizations in the
United States were exposed to actual or
attempted payments fraud. Some cases
have resulted in multi-million dollar
losses and pose significant threats to
businesses that fail to take measures to
protect themselves.
This type of threat is also known as
“Social Engineering Fraud,” which is
defined as a non-technical method of
intrusion hackers use to gain access to
buildings, systems or data by using the
art of psychology to exploit human
interaction and often involves tricking
people into breaking normal security
procedures. It is one of the greatest
threats that organizations encounter
today.
Impersonation Fraud typically takes two
forms: 1) Fake CEO Scams or 2) Vendor/
Client Scams. A “Fake CEO Scam” is
when ѡ