Warning - ACH & Small to Medium Businesses are Being Targeted by CyberCriminals

Brian Krebs of the Washington Post stated the Financial Services Information Sharing and Analysis Center had indicated Eastern European cyber gangs are stealing millions from small to medium businesses through online banking fraud. Unfortunately, many of the victims fail to report the crime out of fear that they won't be able to recover losses from their bank. The victims suffered from malicious software being planted on company owned Microsoft Windows PCs, which allowed fraudsters to obtain sensitive online bank information. The fraudsters then wire money to accomplices in the United States who then wire the money to the fraudsters overseas. The fraudsters’ use of the ACH network has become of critical concern because of the lack of controls it employs. For example, if I conduct a large fraudulent transaction with a credit card then a red flag will pop up, but if I did the same transaction with an ACH payment it would go undetected.

In a dramatic example, Dwelling House Savings and Loan Association failed after cyberthieves siphoned off $3 million in an ACH scam.