Social engineering wire transfer scams cost U.S. businesses nearly $1.6 billion between October 2013 and December 2016, according to figures from the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center yesterday.

With email compromise schemes -- in which criminals fraudulently persuade individuals and companies to transfer funds -- on the rise, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network issued an advisory to financial institutions today to help them identify and prevent these frauds.

The FBI yesterday issued a notification warning companies of the ongoing threat of business email compromise scams that caused losses of nearly $76 million between December 2015 and March 2016.

In response to recent high-profile compromised communications sent through the SWIFT communications network, ABA -- together with the Financial Services Information Sharing and Analysis Center and other financial groups -- today issued a statement with insight and analysis on the incidents, as well as recommendations for mitigating cyber risks.

The FBI on Tuesday released an updated public service announcement to provide new information and statistical data related to business email compromise scams.

Each year, millions of dollars are lost to a type of fraud that’s particularly difficult to detect and stop, and it’s all based on a criminal’s ability to exploit a basic human characteristic: the tendency to trust.