Finnish investigators are probing cases of apparent confidence scams, in which con artists have persuaded financial employees to pay out large sums in the belief that the order has come from the company’s chief executive. Last year the National Bureau of Investigation and other police departments received reports of 38 such swindles, in which at least 13 cases companies have lost money.

"The crimes we are investigating have targeted large companies. The sums lost have ranged from thousands to hundreds of thousands of euros," said Detective Chief Inspector Jyrki Kaipanen of the NBI’s cybercrime prevention unit.

Kaipanen also speculated that police know about just a fraction of the scams and companies involved in the series of crimes. He said that he hoped that companies affected would come forward to the police and also report attempts to engineer the payouts. Even attempted aggravated fraud is a punishable offence and police need all the information about the nature of the con.

Europol: Tracks lead to Israel

In recent years this particular form of fraud has become increasingly prevalent worldwide. Criminals do their homework by researching companies’ top management online and with the help of phone calls. They also investigate the persons responsible for managing the companies’ financial affairs.

Once they’ve done their background checks they fraudsters send bogus emails purporting to come from the companies’ chief executives, requesting the payment of large sums. In some cases the criminals resort to phone calls to request the payments.

The sums paid out by companies that have fallen for the scam have ended up in bank accounts in China, South America or Eastern Europe.

In the cases under investigation by the NBI, officials have managed to secure the return of funds to just three organisations – as a result of prompt action by the police.

"In one of these cases the amount sent to a Chinese bank account was half a million euros," Kaipanen remarked.

The European law enforcement body Europol has taken a special interest in the CEO fraud. A project that began last autumn gathered police from 34 officers in The Hague last week. Project leader Peter Depuydt told Yle that as a result of international cooperation the first suspects in the cases were made last year in Israel. Police were also able to trace phone numbers and computer IP addresses to the Israeli capital Tel Aviv.

NBI working with Europol

The first public reports of the scam in Finland involved a subsidiary of the cranes and lifting equipment company Konecranes and a subsidiary of the IT company Affecto. Konecranes parted with 17 million euros to the criminals and Affecto lost just under one million euros.

NBI said that there appears to be no end to the series of swindles. During the autumn the criminals focused their attention on stock exchange listed companies as well as unlisted firms in Finland.

"It seems that the victims have been selected on their ability to pay up," Kaipanen added.

Earlier this month NBI also began to work with Europol to get to the bottom of the spate of fraud. Europol said that the success of some of the criminals has enticed others to try their luck by using coarsely-worded fraudulent messages to force companies to pay certain invoices. A number of Finnish companies have also detected the ham-fisted messages.

Edit: 17.40 Article updated to correct Konecranes description.

Edit: 18.22 Europol project leader name corrected to Peter Depuydt.