AwarenessScams & deception
CEO / impersonation fraud
“It’s the boss. I need this done quickly, and quietly.”
Understand it
A form of business email compromise in which the attacker plays a senior figure to lean on a junior one, using rank and urgency to bypass the usual checks.
How to spot it
Pressure, secrecy, a request that skips the normal process - often while the “boss” is conveniently unreachable.
Close the gap
- Tell staff plainly that no genuine manager will mind them checking.
- Make the call-back the ordinary thing to do, not the awkward thing.
- Keep approval rules identical for everyone, however senior.
- Rehearse it once, so people have met the trick before it is real.
What to do about it
You don't fix a scam, you spot one. Run anything suspicious through our phishing checker, and let your plan harden the accounts and money they're really after. When money's involved, the fix is a habit, not a setting: confirm every payment or change of bank details by phone, on a number you already have.