Overview
The victim expects to do a favor or task for a boss, co-worker, or other trusted contact.
How It Works
The scammer impersonates a colleague or trusted contact, sometimes a high-level executive, to deceive the victim into sending money or divulging sensitive company information.
This is classified as a relationship scam because the scammer leverages the relationship (personal details) between the victim and the impersonated person in order to achieve the scam.
The victim does not expect anything else from the scam other than to obey the request of the imposter pretending to be their boss or to do a favor for a colleague or contact.
These scams are typically targeted to a specific victim, and designed to appear to come from a specific coworker or trusted contact.
These scams sometimes begin on SMS or email, but social media, phone or video conference can also be used.
Can be related to the enterprise security concept of Business Email Compromise, however the workplace imposter scam is not limited to email, nor is it limited to a compromised work account. In fact, many workplace imposter scams happen on personal devices or on social media.
Related Articles
Synthetic Examples
8.3 Sample Data 1 - count: 242. With fake phone numbers and urls
8.3 Sample Data 2 - count: 400. With fake phone numbers and urls
Related Scams
Other relationship scams
Related Crime Schemes
Insider Threat: Any scheme that uses insider access or information in order to work.
Victim Targeting Context
The scammer may use one or more of the following techniques to initially reach the victim.
Targeted Conversational Approach: The scammer approaches the victim through targeted, topical online conversation.
Semi-Targeted Collection: The bait (initial reachout) is sent out to people in a collection harvested online, for example from some data breach or corporate directory.
Social Engineering: Psychological Manipulations
The scammer may use one or more of these psychological techniques to accomplish the scam.
Authority: The scammer employs an abuse of a position of authority to convince the victim to go along with the scam.
Urgency: The scammer employs urgency to increase the likelihood that the victim will take action.
Social Engineering: Impersonation Techniques
The scammer may impersonate one or more of the following groups as part of the scam.
Friend or Family Member: The scammer impersonates a family member or friend of the victim.
Workplace Employer or Colleague: The scammer impersonates an employer or colleague.