Cyberthieves have moved about $100 million out of U.S. bank accounts, announced the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation. Now one of the major issues being addressed by the National Cyber Forensics and Training Alliance (NCFTA), there has been a significant increase in automated clearinghouse (ACH) fraud over the past few months, targeting small businesses, municipal governments and schools.
Using online banking to add new payees to the organization bank account and then moving the money overnight, hackers can take thousands or millions of dollars out of the victims’ accounts at an alarming speed. Once they have access to the bank account, the hackers set up ACH transfers to money mules—usually innocent victims who believe they’re doing payroll processing for international companies—who then transfer the money oversees through services like Western Union and Moneygram. Once the money is out of the country, it is gone for good.
The NCFTA is tracking between $1 million and $1.5 million in losses weekly to ACH, NCFTA's executive director, Ron Plesco. "That's just from the folks we deal with. We're thinking it's larger than that," he added.
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