OMAHA, Neb. — Since 2022, the Better Business Bureau (BBB) has received over 3,600 reports of business scams through its Scam Tracker, highlighting a growing threat to companies across North America. These scams, which include employee and vendor impersonations, theft of social media accounts and data breaches, have resulted in staggering financial losses.
The BBB’s report, “BBB Study: How impostors, stolen data, and fake services cost businesses billions,” reveals that business scammers can swiftly steal hundreds of thousands of dollars without proper protections in place. Federal agencies report total losses reaching billions each year.
Key findings from the study indicate that the average data breach costs a company $4.9 million, excluding some of the largest losses. In 2024 alone, data breaches cost businesses a total of $1.4 billion. Additionally, elaborate schemes such as business email compromise scams, where scammers impersonate employees to extract cash or sensitive information, contribute to these significant losses…