Medicare, Medicaid BEC scammers indicted

The U.S. Department of Justice has announced charges of money laundering and wire fraud against 10 individuals allegedly involved in business email compromise attacks exploiting Medicare and Medicaid, which have resulted in losses exceeding $11 million, according to BleepingComputer. Medicare, Medicaid, and private health insurer losses resulting from the BEC schemes amounted to more than $4.7 million, while federal government agencies, private entities, and individuals incurred more than $6.4 million in losses, the Justice Department noted. "Unwittingly, five state Medicaid programs, two Medicare Administrative Contractors, and two private health insurers allegedly were deceived into making payments to the defendants and their co-conspirators instead of depositing the reimbursement payments into bank accounts belonging to the hospitals," said the Justice Department. The FBI previously reported that over $43.4 billion have been lost in more than 241,000 domestic and international BEC scams between June 2016 and July 2019, with losses increasing by 65% from July 2019 to December 2021.