According to Coalition’s 2025 Cyber Claims Report, Business Email Compromise (BEC) attacks and Fund Transfer Fraud (FTF) accounted for a staggering 60% of all cyber insurance claims in 2024. The financial impact is significant: BEC incidents cost organizations on average $35,000. Furthermore, 29% of BEC attacks led to FTF incidents, with an even higher average loss of $106,000.
A Near-Miss That Says It All
Consider the story of a banker at a large regional bank. A customer — a landscaper — came in to finalize the purchase of a large truck, with a $50,000 wire transfer to the dealership.
As part of standard procedure, the banker asked how the customer received the dealership’s bank details. The customer showed an email from their contact at the dealership. The banker asked: “Did you call the dealership to confirm the banking details?” The customer made the call on speaker right there.
The dealer’s response was immediate: “No, no. Oh, no. That’s not our information at all. I never sent you that email.”
A bad actor had compromised the dealership’s email account and sent a legitimate-looking email with fake bank details. Thanks to the banker’s diligence, both the landscaper and the dealer were saved from losing $50,000. The landscaper exclaimed: “You just saved me $50,000, AND a claim on my cyberfraud insurance.”
The Numbers Are Getting Worse
While the frequency of FTF claims dropped slightly, the severity of BEC claims saw a significant 23% increase — particularly in the latter half of 2024. This spike was partly due to increased costs associated with legal expenses, incident response, data mining, and other mitigation and recovery efforts.
What Organizations Can Do
Implement routine credential screening to ensure employees and consumers aren’t compromised. Before processing significant financial transactions or allowing critical account changes, verify the legitimacy of the involved email accounts. While robust security measures like employee training and MFA form a strong foundation, layering in checks specifically around large transactions and email compromise can provide an extra line of defense — potentially saving your organization from substantial financial losses.
The mechanics of how email became the digital economy’s most consequential vulnerability, the case studies that should have changed everything, and what a continuous intelligence approach actually looks like — all documented in “The Lying Gatekeeper,” a special report from myNetWatchman.
Read the Full Report →