Save the Children Foundation has revealed that the charity was targeted by fraudsters last year , leading to the loss of $ 1 million . Speaking to the Boston Globe , the US arm of the non-profit , which supports children worldwide , said that con artists managed to compromise Attack.Databreach an employee 's email account in order to masquerade as Attack.Phishing the staff member in question . Once access was gained Attack.Databreach to the account , the hackers behind the scam created Attack.Phishing a number of false invoices and related documents which described a need to purchase solar panels for health centers located in Pakistan . The Connecticut-based charity organization fell for the ruse Attack.Phishing , conducted in May 2017 , and approved the transfer of close to $ 1 million to an entity in Japan which was used as a front to rake in the proceeds . By the time the foundation realized the invoice was false , it was too late and the money was gone . The publication says that Save the Children possessed insurance which covered close to all of the lost funds , and in the end , the charity only lost $ 112,000 . `` We have improved our security measures to help ensure this does not happen again , '' Stacy Brandom , the chief financial officer of Save the Children told the Globe . `` Fortunately , through insurance , we were ultimately reimbursed for most of the funds . '' The scammers targeting the charity appeared to follow the rules of Business Email Compromise (BEC) attacks Attack.Phishing almost to the letter . These campaigns have a number of steps , compromise Attack.Databreach a business email account via brute-force hacking or social engineering ; pretend to be Attack.Phishing a legitimate staff member , and lure Attack.Phishing another individual to approve false invoices or fraudulent payments . The FBI has previously warned that December 2016 and May 2018 , there was a 136 percent increase in BEC scams Attack.Phishing , reported across 150 countries , Ill-gotten funds are often sent to entities in Asia and billions of dollars have been lost . In February , IBM said a single BEC scam Attack.Phishing originating in Nigeria led to the loss of millions of dollars belonging to Fortune 500 companies . These types of scams are incredibly common and it can be difficult to track down the fraudsters responsible , who may be located in any country in the world . However , on rare occasion , a BEC scam artist is taken to task for their actions . In September , a man from Nigeria was ordered to pay $ 2.5 million and serve five years in prison for conducting a variety of BEC scams Attack.Phishing against enterprise companies . Prosecutors estimate that the con artist defrauded victims out of hundreds of millions of dollars .