Phishing and Business Email Compromise in Retail: How Attackers Target Your Finance Team
A retail buying director receives an email appearing to be from a key clothing supplier. It requests that payment for the upcoming season's stock be directed to a new bank account due to an "audit process" at the supplier's bank. The email is perfect — correct supplier name, reference to the actual outstanding invoices, and what appears to be the supplier's genuine email address. The buying director approves the payment change. £380,000 goes to a criminal account in Eastern Europe. This is Business Email Compromise — the most financially damaging single attack type in retail.
UK retailers lost over £280 million to Business Email Compromise fraud in 2023 — an average loss of £52,000 per successful attack.
Retail-Specific Phishing and BEC Attack Patterns
Attackers targeting retail businesses use several specific techniques: supplier invoice fraud (impersonating a known supplier to redirect payment to attacker-controlled accounts — typically preceded by monitoring the target's email for invoice patterns); CEO/CFO fraud (impersonating senior executives to pressure finance teams into urgent wire transfers); loyalty scheme phishing (targeting customers through fake loyalty point notifications, but also targeting retail loyalty programme management staff); and logistics phishing (impersonating DHL, DPD, or other carriers to deliver malware to retail logistics and e-commerce teams who receive genuine carrier emails daily). Each attack exploits a real retail workflow that staff are accustomed to and therefore less likely to scrutinise.
Preventing BEC and Phishing in Retail Organisations
BEC prevention in retail requires both technical and process controls: technical controls (advanced email security that identifies domain spoofing and lookalike domains; DMARC/DKIM/SPF enforcement to prevent impersonation of your own domain; MFA on all email accounts to limit account compromise); process controls (out-of-band verification for any payment detail change — always call the supplier on a known number, never use contact details in the email requesting the change; dual authorisation for payments above a defined threshold; supplier bank detail change verification procedure); and awareness (regular BEC-specific training for finance, buying, and procurement staff using realistic retail scenarios). Coro's email security module, deployed by Kyanite Blue, provides AI-powered BEC detection for retail organisations.
Kyanite Blue specialises in cybersecurity for iGaming operators. MGA-licensed operators across Malta trust our stack.
Get in touchReady to secure your iGaming operation?
MGA-licensed operators across Malta trust Kyanite Blue.