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About us

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Avv. Flavia Betti Tonini, PhD, Of Counsel Flavia Betti Tonini is an experienced attorney with a solid background in corporate law, compliance, criminal law, and...

Posted on 13th January 2023 by lcmm@melchionnalaw.com

About us

Mission and Values

Mission Melchionna PLLC is an indipendent law firm. Melchionna PLLC’s mission is to provide outstanding legal services and tax advice. We focus on building a relationship with...

Posted on 5th November 2019 by lcmm@melchionnalaw.com

About us

Melchionna PLLC, a law firm with a focus on business, corporate, tax, and IP law.

About us Melchionna PLLC represents and assists North American and European business clients in achieving their goals with sound legal advice and innovative solutions to current...

Posted on 18th February 2019 by lcmm@melchionnalaw.com

Business law

Protect your money. Use two-step verification for wire transfers

Wiring money internationally to clients, suppliers, and/or consultants may be a risky task for some businesses. The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”) reported...

Posted on 6th August 2019 by lcmm@melchionnalaw.com

Food law

Update: Tennessee Wine and Spirits Retailers Association v. Thomas

This post follows up on an earlier post written about the same case. Tennessee law imposes a residency requirement on individuals (and companies) wishing to operate retail liquor...

Posted on 11th July 2019 by lcmm@melchionnalaw.com

Trademark law

Trademark registration for foreign applicants is set to change on August 3rd

On July 2nd, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”) announced a new rule requiring “all foreign-domiciled trademarked applicants, registrants, and parties to...

Posted on 9th July 2019 by lcmm@melchionnalaw.com

Business law

The FTC takes aim at social media advertising

Social media advertising through “Influencers” is about to change. These personalities can bring in anywhere from $10,000 to $100,000 for each sponsored product recommendation or...

Posted on 28th June 2019 by lcmm@melchionnalaw.com

Food law

Food Waste: FDA is proposing a new “Best if Used By” label but the food industry is not yet taking advantage of the opportunity

Roughly 1/3 of all food produced globally is wasted (1.3 billion tons). Every year Industrialized countries waste $680 billion worth of food, and Americans alone $161 billion....

Posted on 24th May 2019 by lcmm@melchionnalaw.com

Art law

New Tariff on Chinese products may include works of art and artifacts over 100 year old

Importing works of art in the US has almost always been duty free. However, Chinese art may soon be subject to a new 25% tariff due to rising tensions in the US-Chinese trade war....

Posted on 24th May 2019 by lcmm@melchionnalaw.com

M&A and corporate law

Difference between Full-time, Part-time, Temporary employees, and Independent contractors

What are the major features distinguishing employees within a particular business organization? Generally, there are 4 types of employees, and the rules governing each type...

Posted on 24th May 2019 by lcmm@melchionnalaw.com

Food law

Food allergen in the EU and in the US

Food allergen labeling requirements in the EU and USA are similar in principle as they are meant to reach the same results: adequately inform consumers, protect their health, and...

Posted on 15th May 2019 by lcmm@melchionnalaw.com

Food law

New state legislation restricts labeling for food replacements

Businesses in Arkansas will no longer be able to market their cauliflower-based rice substitute as “cauliflower rice” due to the state’s new “truth in labeling” law. Act 501 makes...

Posted on 30th April 2019 by lcmm@melchionnalaw.com

M&A and corporate law

Careful drafting of confidentiality duty clause within employment arbitration context

Are employees allowed to discuss arbitral proceedings, its merit and documents disclosure with third parties if they signed an exclusive arbitration agreement? In Pfizer,...

Posted on 20th April 2019 by lcmm@melchionnalaw.com

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Business law

Protect your money. Use two-step verification for wire transfers


lcmm@melchionnalaw.com
Protect your money. Use two-step...
Posted on 6th August 2019 by lcmm@melchionnalaw.com

Wiring money internationally to clients, suppliers, and/or consultants may be a risky task for some businesses. The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”) reported recently that, despite its efforts, business email compromise (“BEC”) from internet criminals and hackers has continued to climb over recent years (here). Since 2016 FinCEN has received over 32,000 reports of attempted BEC threatening over $9 billion in personal and business assets. Given the potential danger for BEC at your company, here are some suggestions to try to minimize risks when you are contacted by someone trying to obtain information from you (“impersonator”).

In general, BEC may appear as a three-step process. First, the impersonator unlawfully hacks or gains access to an email account and reads past emails to obtain financial information from the victim company. Second, the impersonator will use this information to send fraudulent bank transfer instructions to the victim’s banking personnel. For this step, the impersonator typically either uses the victim’s email account directly or creates another email address that is nearly identical to the victim’s (e.g. using ceo@law.co  when the real CEO’s email address is ceo@law.com ). Finally, when an employee or bank staff member executes the money transfer as instructed by the impersonator/hacker, the scheme is complete and, if undetected, may be used again in the future. According to FinCEN’s reports, exercise caution when wiring money to banks in Asia (especially China or Hong Kong), as these are common destinations for questionable (up to fraudulent) transfers.

Sectors most commonly targeted by BEC are manufacturing and construction, commercial services, and real estate. In most cases, C-Suite and other high-level managers are most at risk of having their email compromised or being impersonated, while accounting or finance staff are most at risk to receive communication from an impersonator/hackers.

In addition to alerting your staff, here are some other steps you can take to get ahead of BEC:

  • Blacklist commonly used passwords. Contrary to common belief, the National Institute of Standards and Technology finds that this is more effective than password composition or expiration policies (check here for more information);
  • Be wary of writing about company or financial information in emails, on your company’s website, or on any other webpage that may not be secure;
  • Consider two-step verification processes to confirm wire transfers or changes to vendor payment location directly via phone;
  • Create or purchase computer intrusion software that flags potentially fraudulent emails;
  • Purchase and maintain all internet domains that are similar to but slightly different than your company’s domain; and
  • Make your employees aware of BEC and train them to scrutinize wire transfer requests.

The information provided here does not, and is not intended to, constitute legal advice but simply information for general purposes only and may not be the most up to date. Use of our website or any of its links or resources do not create an attorney-client relationship between the reader, user, or browser and the law firm. The views expressed at, or through, this site are those of the individual authors writing in their individual capacities only.

lcmm@melchionnalaw.com
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