We have been alerted that some of our clients have been receiving fraudulent emails from persons purporting to be their vendors, requesting them to send wire transfers to an account which differs from the norm. We urge you to exercise extreme caution when such instructions are received. This fraud scheme is known as Business Email Compromise (BEC).

Business Email Compromise occurs when fraudsters impersonate persons who are known to you and convince you or your employees to send payments voluntarily to accounts controlled by them.

Fraudsters use slight variations on legitimate addresses to fool victims into thinking fake accounts are authentic. Carefully examine all email addresses, URLs, and spellings used in any correspondence.

To prevent being a victim of fraud, ALWAYS conduct a meaningful call back to the sender using a contact number on your file (not a number from the communication you may believe to be compromised). If no contact is made, do not act on the instructions.

If you are a victim of fraud, please immediately contact your Relationship Manager so that they can initiate attempts at recovery (noting that there is no guarantee of recovery).

If after business hours, contact the 24 hour Customer Care and Sales Centre by calling 1 866 743 2257 and forward any email communication to fraud@cibcfcib.com.