The FBI recently reported that their Internet Crime Complaint Center received over 21,000 complaints of business emails being compromised by hackers in 2022. Adjusted losses from these events are calculated at over $2.7 billion. Many of these incidents involved wire transfer fraud, which has proliferated in recent years and has caused significant legal and financial problems for those involved.

While wire transfer fraud can occur in many forms, it commonly involves hacking and spoofing email accounts of either the sender or intended recipient of the wire transfer. For example, a hacker may gain access to a businesses' email system through a phishing scheme and then monitor email traffic for wire payment instructions. When a planned wire is identified, the hacker intercepts and changes the legitimate wire instructions so that the funds are rerouted to a bank account controlled by the hacker.