Catherine Woneis, the former Vice President of CipherTrace, a MasterCard-owned service that secures crypto transactions, narrowly avoided losing nearly $100,000 of her life savings last year. The incident occurred after scammers gained access to her real estate agent’s email through an account takeover fraud.
Account takeover fraud is a tactic where criminals gain unauthorized access to personal accounts like email, social media, or banking. These fraudsters typically use stolen credentials obtained through the dark web or social engineering to trick victims into providing their login details. Once inside the account, they siphon funds, explains Woneis.
In 2023 alone, account takeover scams surged by 354%, causing $13 billion in losses, according to Sift Science, an AI-driven fraud detection service.
Woneis’ ordeal started when scammers used a technique called “credential stuffing,” where AI bots attempt multiple username-password combinations until they successfully gain access. After breaching her real estate agent’s email, they gathered transaction information and posed as the title company for Woneis’ home. They sent her an email requesting an “accelerated” payment, a common tactic in fraud schemes.
“They always try to add urgency to the situation,” Woneis noted.
Though Woneis checked the email address, she missed a slight alteration appended to it, assuming it was part of the company’s automated system. The scammers even replicated the title company’s wire instructions, down to the exact typography and letterhead. The only discrepancies were a fake phone number, email, and incorrect bank details.
Thankfully, Woneis called the title company using the original phone number she had, which saved her from transferring $100,000 to the fraudsters. “If I had called the number on the fraudulent form, they would have pretended to be the real estate company, and I could have fallen victim to wire fraud,” she said.
Now working for cybersecurity company Fingerprint, Woneis is focused on developing tools to combat the rising threat of account takeovers. According to her, technologies that detect VPN use or identify bots attempting brute force attacks are key to preventing fraud.
For anyone who suspects their accounts may be compromised, Woneis advises immediately changing usernames and passwords, enabling two-factor authentication, and reporting any fraudulent activity to the FTC’s fraud reporting website.