‘Urgent from CEO: send payment’ – the multimillion-dollar scams targeting Thai companies
Imagine arriving at your office on a quiet morning, opening your inbox, and finding an urgent message from your company’s CEO. The instructions are clear, confidential, and extremely time-sensitive: a major corporate investment needs immediate funding, or a vital supplier has changed their banking details for an upcoming payment. The email carries your company’s logo, the executive’s familiar signature, and an explicit command to bypass normal channels to get the job done quickly.
For a growing number of accounting and finance professionals in Thailand, this exact scenario is not a security drill – it’s the beginning of a multimillion-baht nightmare.
“Scammers have developed a new technique termed ‘CEO Fraud’ or ‘Business Email Compromise’,” the Anti Cyber Scam Center (ACSC) warned recently.
What is CEO fraud?
Three companies lodged complaints with ACSC this month (May) after losing nearly 93 million baht to scammers using CEO Fraud/Business Email Compromise. This tactic involves criminals impersonating senior executives or trusted business partners through fake emails designed to pressure employees into transferring money.
The scams are carefully crafted to appear legitimate. Fraudsters often create email addresses that look identical to real company domains, changing only a single letter or symbol that easily escapes notice during a busy workday. For example, an email from “company.com” may be altered to “cornpany.com,” replacing the letter “m” with “rn” to deceive recipients. The email trap is also baited with familiar logos and names of executives.
The first victim was a company in Bangkok’s Thonglor area. On December 30 last year, the company received an email notification from what it believed was one of its suppliers, claiming their bank details had changed.
The company replied on February 9 to query the change, which was reconfirmed by the scammer. It later transferred two payments – of 3.7 million baht and 40.17 million baht – to the bank account given in the email. The company only realized that something was wrong when the supplier complained about payment delays. A check revealed that the scammer’s email address mimicked the supplier’s address but differed in one tiny detail.
In the second case, an employee of a Rayong-based company was contacted online by a scammer claiming to be an executive of its overseas-based parent company, and instructed to transfer funds to a supplier. The employee ended up making three US dollar transfers with a total value of 41 million baht. Growing suspicious after more requests arrived, they finally reached out to the ACSC.
The third corporate victim stated its accountant received an email from what she believed to be the CEO, instructing her to wire payments overseas. The requests, which included fake invoices for executive expenses, led to a loss of over 8.8 million baht.
How to stay safe
The ACSC has urged company staff to raise their guard and avoid rushing to make any payment just because the email is marked “urgent” and appears to come from within their organisation.
“Scammers usually use words like ‘Urgent!’ or ‘CEO’s instructions’ or “highly confidential’ to pressure victims,” the ACSC warned.
“Don’t make a transfer simply based on instructions you receive via email,” the agency emphasised. “Any transfer should be made only after the request is reviewed by at least two staff.”
The ACSC also cautioned that any requests to change an online payment method should be double-checked by calling suppliers through a telephone number previously used to contact the recipient.
It also urged heightened vigilance when responding to emails.
“When you receive an email, carefully check the spelling of the address. Scammers use addresses that closely mimic the genuine corporate email accounts.”
Victims of online scams can lodge complaints with police online at thaipoliceonline.com or call the 24-hour hotline: 1441.
By Thai PBS World’s General Desk