Companies should invest in training to help employees ward off social engineering attacks, which use social media, personal profiles, and websites.
FinCEN reports that the total value of attempted thefts climbed to an average of $301 million per month in 2018 from only $110 million per month in 2016.
"Fraudsters are now trying to use ACH transactions as vehicles for their scams as they move away from checks and wires," said the AFP.
A Nigerian gang's "business email compromise" scam aimed at finance execs shows how cybercriminals are becoming more sophisticated.
The SEC finds that internal accounting controls failed to prevent nine public companies from losing money to business email fraud.
Seventy-four percent of finance professionals report that their companies were victims of payments fraud in 2016, according to the AFP.
The association says scams in which cybercriminals send fake emails from a top executive to initiate wire transfers are becoming increasingly prevalent.
