Esme brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to our website, specializing in all aspects of DarkWeb security. With a deep understanding of the intricate workings of the DarkWeb and its associated cybersecurity risks, Esme curates insightful and informative content for our readers.
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Kalu may receive up to $250,000 in fines and 20 years in jail if he enters a guilty plea to wire fraud. He was held in the U.S. after being extradited after being arrested in Nigeria in 2022 at the FBI’s request. In court filings, a Boston investment business referred to as “Company A” was the target of Kalu and his unidentified accomplices.
Over 40 businesses in North America, Europe, and Israel have received investments from this company, with an emphasis on fighting cardiovascular disease and strokes. BEC scams are sophisticated cybercrimes that are extremely profitable. BEC scams were the second most financially destructive internet crime in 2022, after investment scams, which caused recorded losses of $3.3 billion, totalling $2.7 billion.
The Financial Losses
Losses from BEC have been publicly reported, and they will total $2.4 billion in 2021 and $1.9 billion in 2020. By July 2019, Kalu and his accomplices had infected a Company A employee’s computer with malware. Emails containing the phrases “capital,” “invoice,” and “wire” were redirected to the Gmail account of an attacker.
They set up false accounts for Company A directors, generated a domain name that was identical to Company A’s, and gave a London financial institution instructions to transfer $625,000 from Company A to accounts outside of the United States. A portion of the money was then moved to accounts at the Nigerian Bank of Africa. On Nov. 29, Kalu will be sentenced, and U.S. Attorney Matthew M. Graves has warned people to be vigilant about BEC frauds.
If victims swiftly alert financial services companies and the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center, the agency may be able to recover stolen BEC cash. For 2,838 BEC complaints involving domestic-to-domestic transactions totalling $590 million in 2022, the FBI’s Rapid Action Team said that it had successfully started a financial fraud kill chain, enabling them to recover nearly $433 million in stolen money.