AI-Boosted Scammers Flood Inboxes with Authentic-Looking Invoice Scams
Microsoft researchers have uncovered a new wave of invoice-scam emails that showcase how threat actors are increasingly using AI to improve their campaigns. These business email compromise (BEC) scams, which have been around for a while, have become more sophisticated thanks to the adoption of AI.
The researchers found that fraudsters are now using multiple tactics in the same email to make them appear authentic. In one campaign, attackers impersonated top executives at firms and told accounts payable departments to send fraudulent payments of nearly $50,000.
The emails were made to look more legitimate by including a forwarded email thread from the fake CEO to ServiceNow, a cloud-based enterprise platform that automates workflows and business processes. The forwarded emails fabricated an email chain where the phony CEO sent invoices allegedly received from ServiceNow.
About 88% of the campaign's targets are American. Microsoft found several indicators consistent with AI-assisted template development, including extensive HTML comments, structured section labeling, and highly uniform template construction.