---
title: "What is CEO fraud? | Daniel Christensen"
canonical_url: "https://danielchristensen.no/en/glossary/direktorsvindel"
last_updated: "2026-09-02T13:50:00.519Z"
locale: en
meta:
  description: "Fraud where someone impersonates your boss and pressures you into paying an invoice or transferring money."
  "og:description": "Fraud where someone impersonates your boss and pressures you into paying an invoice or transferring money."
  "og:title": "What is CEO fraud?"
---

[← All terms](https://danielchristensen.no/en/glossary)Glossary

# CEO fraud

Fraud where someone impersonates your boss and pressures you into paying an invoice or transferring money.

Also called: business email compromise

CEO fraud (also called business email compromise) is targeted fraud against employees with access to money or invoices. The attacker impersonates the CEO or another executive, often from a deceptively similar email address, and requests an urgent payment that “can’t wait”.

The best defense is a simple routine: every payment change and urgent payment is verified through a second channel, for example a phone call to a number you know is right. No real boss gets angry because you double-checked.

What makes this variant dangerous is the preparation. The attacker has usually read the annual report, worked out who has authority to pay, and waits until the executive is travelling or on holiday. Then the message arrives: short, polite, slightly impatient, and with a good explanation of why it has to go through you rather than the usual route.

The amounts are rarely arbitrary. The attacker has worked out what is large enough to be worth the effort and small enough to pass without raising eyebrows. At the same time this is one of the cheapest attacks to defend against, because the defense isn’t technical at all. Two people must approve any change of account number, and urgent payments get confirmed by voice. It costs nothing and stops almost everything.

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