Bass, Berry & Sims attorney Juhi Patel authored an article for InsideCounsel providing insight for companies on how to avoid falling victim to a growing type of financial fraud known as business email compromise. Often times, these email scams are incredibly sophisticated and make it difficult for employees to know whether to trust the actions suggested within the email. This was the case in one recent, costly incident in which a wire transfer of more than $700,000 was sent to a Chinese Bank. Between January and August 2015, the FBI recorded a 270% increase in the number of victims of business email compromise scams.
As these scams remain on the rise, there are many steps a company should follow to better protect itself. “An important first step is to protect, monitor and enforce your client’s rights in its domain name or names,” recommends Juhi in the article. Scammers often send their victims scam and phishing emails from an email address similar to a legitimate email address, which is often off by one or two letters.
The full article, “(Don’t) Go Phish: IP Considerations Amid the Rise of Business Email Scams,” was published by InsideCounsel.com on April 6, 2016, and is available online or in the PDF below.
This content is part of a series of articles focused on intellectual property issues published by InsideCounsel.com and authored by Bass, Berry & Sims attorneys. Click the link below to read other articles in the series.
- “Can You Hear Me Now? How to Make Your Trademark Slogan Heard Over the Crowd,” InsideCounsel.com (March 23, 2016)
- “How to Enforce Your IP Rights Without Waking the Internet,” InsideCounsel.com (April 27, 2016)
- “You Successfully Registered Your Trademark. What’s Next?,” InsideCounsel.com (June 21, 2016)
- “Using Social Media to Defend Against the Trademark Bully,” InsideCounsel.com (July 19, 2016)
- “Get Ahead of the Game: The Impact of the New EU Data Protection Law,” InsideCounsel.com (August 2, 2016)