WhHY WIRE FRAUD SPIKES IN DECEMBER
December is peak hunting season for wire fraud. Learn why fraudsters target businesses during year-end and how the 3-second hover rule can protect you.
Last week, a nonprofit director wired $31,000 to a fraudster posing as their accountant.
The email looked perfect. Same signature, same tone, same email thread they'd been using for months.
The only difference? One letter in the email address.
December is hunting season for wire fraud.
Here's why: end-of-year deadlines create urgency. Finance teams are stretched thin. Everyone's rushing to close books, pay vendors, and wrap up before the holidays.
Scammers know this.
40% of business email compromise attacks are now AI-generated. Eftsure reports that 70% more scammers are hijacking real email threads rather than starting fresh ones.
67% of these attacks come from free webmail services like Gmail. The average ask? Over $43,000.
The 3-second hover rule
Before clicking any link or replying to any payment request, hover over the sender's email address for three seconds. Actually read it. Not the display name. The actual address.
Most people glance. You need to look.
That nonprofit director? The scammer swapped an "l" for a "1" in the domain. Three seconds of hovering would have caught it.
Your One Takeaway
For the rest of December, verify every payment change request with a phone call. Not a reply email. A phone call to a number you already have on file.
The scammers are counting on you being too busy to check.
Don't be.