Business Email Fraud Recovery of $360,000

Case Type: Business Email Compromise

Victim's identity: Singapore cross-border trading company (alias: Lixing International Trading)

Amount Recovered: US$360.000

Processing Time: Approx. 2.5 months

Background

Lap Shing International Trading is a Singaporean company that has been in business for more than 10 years. It has long been in close contact with its European suppliers and regularly makes import and export payments of hundreds of thousands of US dollars. in early 2024, in the course of a routine payment, the finance department received a letter from the supplier informing it that "the account has been updated, please remit the current month's payment to the new account number.

The format and tone of the email was the same as usual, even using the signature and attachment format commonly used between the two parties. The finance staff did not suspect anything and remitted the $360,000 as instructed. However, when the supplier asked a few days later why the money had not yet been received, LIC realized something was wrong - it was an elaborate commercial email scam (BEC).

Our involvement and investigation

LIC contacted our international anti-fraud team in the first instance. We immediately initiated the following actions:

Email forensics and traceability analysis

We reviewed the communication records between the victim and the vendor and found that the fraudster had infiltrated both parties' mail systems weeks earlier and spoofed an almost identical sender address via a relay server.

Tracing the flow of funds

Through our multinational fund investigation network, we were able to locate within the first week that the funds had entered the account of a fictitious shell company in Hong Kong and had been split into a number of accounts in preparation for the transfer.

Legal and Judicial Assistance

We worked quickly with local lawyers to submit an emergency freeze request to the Hong Kong banks and police, successfully preventing the withdrawal of the remaining funds, which amounted to approximately $310,000 USD. At the same time, we reported the case to the Monetary Authority of Singapore for cross-border judicial cooperation.