Many of our missionaries take advantage of wiring money from their Commerce bank account through the Mission Office. For the most part, as a form of transferring money, bank wires are fast, secure, accessible and private.

According to banking industry experts, the number of wire transfers taking place has nearly doubled over the past 20 years, and the total dollar value has tripled in the same time frame.  This increase in volume has made wires an attractive target for fraudsters. In fact, the FBI claims that the number of wire fraud scams reported by title companies alone increased by 480% in 2016.

So how are fraudsters doing it? Email!

Email is proving to be the easiest way for a fraudster to anonymously imitate legitimate communication. Fraudsters often use malware to steal email login credentials, then disguise themselves as the person you have been communicating with to give new wiring instructions, so your money is sent to a different account and quickly withdrawn.  Unfortunately, most of these funds are never recovered. In 2018 alone, Americans lost $905 million to fraud.

The best way to help prevent wire fraud is to familiarize yourself with the five most common red flags on wire transfer requests:

1. The sender places a “rush” request. If your wire recipient suddenly insists that the transfer takes place immediately, make sure you get verbal verification of the wiring instructions.

2. The sender refuses phone calls and communicates via email only. If a person is uncharacteristically unable to be reached and the wire instructions have changed, do not send the wire until you have verbally communicated with them. Their email could have been hacked. 

3. The sender uses odd/incorrect words, spelling, or phrases. If the email is written with incorrect punctuation, unusual phrasing, weird spacing, etc, it may not be from a legitimate source. 

4. The amount or nature of the request changes. If your wires have traditionally been a certain amount and the amount changes without warning or for an unusual reason, make sure you get verbal verification for the change. 

5. The return email is incorrect. This may be harder to spot than you may think. All of us, after we’ve seen an email address hundreds of times, tend not to look at it in detail. But if an email changes by one letter, it could be fraudulent. So, if you are communicating with me at kimberly@bbfimissions.com, and suddenly my email is kimberly@bbfimssions.com, I can guarantee it is not me you are communicating with anymore, and a verbal verification is in order. 

If you believe you may have fallen victim to a wire scam, contact the Mission Office and Commerce Bank immediately. The quicker fraud is discovered, the better your chances of getting your money reimbursed. As always, we are here to help, so if you have any question, please let me know.

-by Kimberly Riggs, Administrative Assistant to Brian Garrison