LYON, France: A global stop-payment mechanism developed by INTERPOL has helped Singapore authorities make their largest ever recovery of funds defrauded in a business email compromise scam.
On 23 July 2024, a commodity firm based in Singapore filed a police report stating that they had fallen victim to a business email compromise scam, in which a scammer obtains access to or impersonates a business email account to deceive employees into transferring money to their bank account.
On 15 July, the firm had received an email from a supplier requesting that a pending payment be sent to a new bank account based in Timor Leste. The email, however, came from a fraudulent account spelled slightly different to the supplier’s official email address.
Unaware, the firm transferred USD 42.3 million to the fake supplier on 19 July, only discovering the crime four days later when the genuine supplier said it had not been paid.