5 Signs of Business Email Compromise Every South Florida SMB Should Know

Business email compromise (BEC) does not look like typical hacking. There is usually no malware, no ransom note, and no obvious breach — just a convincing email that talks an employee into wiring money or changing payment details. It is now the single costliest category of cybercrime reported to the FBI each year, and South Florida's concentration of real estate, professional services, and import-export businesses makes the region a frequent target. Here are five signs your team should be trained to catch.

1. A Sudden Change in Payment Instructions

The single most common BEC pattern is an email — often appearing to come from a real vendor, landlord, or executive — asking to update bank account details for an upcoming payment. Attackers frequently time these requests around real invoices or closings they have learned about by monitoring a compromised mailbox, which makes the request feel routine rather than suspicious.

2. Urgency and Pressure to Bypass Normal Process

"I need this done before I board my flight" or "this is time-sensitive, please handle discreetly" are classic BEC phrasing. Attackers impersonating executives lean on urgency and a request for confidentiality specifically because it discourages the employee from checking with a second person — which is exactly the verification step that would catch the fraud.

3. Look-Alike Domains and Subtle Email Address Changes

Attackers frequently register domains that are one character off from a real vendor or partner (an extra letter, a swapped 'rn' for 'm', a '.co' instead of '.com') and use them to send convincing follow-up emails on an existing thread. At a glance, in a busy inbox, these are almost impossible to catch by eye alone.

4. Requests That Skip Normal Approval Chains

Most South Florida businesses have some form of approval process for large payments — a second signature, a purchase order, a finance manager sign-off. BEC emails are frequently written to specifically ask the recipient to skip that process "just this once," often citing confidentiality or time pressure as the reason.

5. Login Alerts or Mailbox Rules You Do Not Recognize

Many BEC attacks start with a compromised mailbox, not a spoofed one. Attackers who gain access often quietly create forwarding rules or filters that hide their tracks, then wait and watch real conversations before striking. An unfamiliar sign-in alert or a mailbox rule your team did not create is a strong early indicator of compromise.

BEC works because it targets people and process, not just technology — which means the fix has to combine both. If your business has not reviewed its payment verification process or email security controls in the last year, that gap is exactly what attackers are counting on. Call us at 786-991-0111 or schedule your free IT assessment online.