Microsoft sees some new wrinkles in invoice-scam emails
Microsoft researchers observed a BEC invoice scam sending 1M+ AI-assisted emails impersonating executives and ServiceNow to request ~$50,000 payments.
Microsoft researchers tracked a campaign of more than one million invoice-scam emails launched in early August, with about 88% of targets in the United States. Attackers impersonated top executives and ServiceNow, fabricating forwarded email threads and invoices to convince accounts payable teams to send payments of nearly $50,000. Microsoft found indicators such as extensive HTML comments and highly uniform template construction consistent with AI-assisted campaign development, though it could not independently establish how much content AI generated.
- More than one million BEC emails sent in early August; 88% of targets were American.
- Emails impersonated executives and ServiceNow, fabricating forwarded threads and invoices requesting ~$50,000.
- Microsoft cites AI-assisted template indicators: extensive HTML comments, structured labels, uniform construction.
- Layered lures combined executive impersonation, vendor branding, fabricated invoices, and supporting email conversations.
- Vendors
- MicrosoftServiceNow
- Products
- ServiceNow
- Organizations
- MicrosoftServiceNow
From the original article
2 min read at therecord.mediaResearchers analyzed a flood of fraudulent business emails and found that the threat actors had doubled-up on tactics to make them appear legitimate, including help from AI.
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