Companies who in the course of their business routinely wire transfer monies overseas are particularly susceptible to this scam.

According to the FBI, companies across the United States have lost billions of dollars to scams as fraudsters impersonate company executives through emails requesting staff to transfer monies to accounts controlled by them.

Losses from these scams, known as “business email compromise,” have grossed $2.3 billion from October through February this year, reads an FBI alert issued this week, citing law enforcement agencies from across the globe.

According to the FBI’s security bulletin, more than 17,642 businesses of various sizes, across at least 79 countries, have been victims of such a scam.

Earlier cyber security experts and law enforcement agencies had warned consumers that business email compromises were on the rise. The extent of the losses arising from this threat were however not disclosed.

However, cyber security experts opine the losses will increase even more as high profits act as a magnet to such scammers.

“It’s a low-risk, high-reward crime. It’s going to continue to get worse before it gets better,” said Tom Brown, a former federal prosecutor in Manhattan.

As per the FBI’s alert, the scammers go to extreme lengths to convince you that their spoofed company e-mail accounts are genuine. They also use a host of other tricks to convince corporate attorneys, CEO, and trusted vendors to transfer funds to their accounts.

“They research employees who manage money and use language specific to the company they are targeting, then they request a wire fraud transfer using dollar amounts that lend legitimacy,” reads the FBI alert.

Businesses that routinely do wire transfers with foreign suppliers are particularly susceptible to these fraudsters.

Case in point: FACC, an Austrian aircraft parts manufacturer had reported that it was a victim of such a scam and had lost nearly 50 million euros ($55 million) due to it. In Arizona, the average loss ranges from $25,000 to $75,000, according to the FBI.

In its alert the FBI has said these sort of scams have seen a rise of 270% in identified victims and exposed losses since January 2015.

As per Tom Brown, a former federal prosecutor in Manhattan who now runs the cyber investigations unit with the Berkeley Research Group, the potential consequence of such a breach through an email attack is not immediately apparent to the victims.

“This shows that even the hack of an email account can cause significant financial loss,” said Brown.