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VJKKANOVA LAW RFVJEW ONLINE: TOLKE LEG 65 VJKL. L. REV. TOLKE LECE I
Comment
GO PHISH: CIRCUIT SPLIT IN POLICY INTERPRETATION FOR SOCIAL
ENGINEERING FRAUD LOSSES CREATES AMBIGUITY FOR INSURERS
AND INSUREDS
GABRIELLA SCOTT*
The development of technology will leave only one problem: the
infirmity of human nature.1
I. UNCHARTED WATERS: INSURERS AND COURTS HIT A SNAG IN LINE OF
PRECEDENT WITH SOCIAL ENGINEERING FRAUD
I need your help with a last-minute transaction, the email read, sent to a new
employee in a company's large finance department.2 The employee read on, realizing
that the message bore the signature, company logo, and email address of her CEO.3
Somewhat startled that she would be singled out among her peers for such an
important task, the employee's hand lingered over the phone to contact her
supervisor as she read the details of the client's financial institution and the large
sum of money to be wired.4
* J.D. Candidate 2021, Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law; B.A. 2018,
University of Kentucky. I would like to dedicate this Comment to my family for their constant
love and support. I also would like to thank all of the teachers and professors who have helped
me grow as a writer over the years; namely, Kristi Spayd, Debbie Hudson, Dr. Bruce Holle, and
Professor Diane Pennys Edelman. Finally, I would like to thank my friends, who have brightened
even the toughest of law school days, and everyone on Villanova Law Review who helped with this
Comment.
1. KARL KRAUS, HALF-TRUTHS & ONE-AND-A-HALF TRUTHS: SELECTED APHORISMS OF
KARL KRAUS 123 (Harry Zohn ed. & trans., Univ. of Chi. Press 1990) (1976). Kraus, a satirical
Austrian writer during World War I, did not live to see the rise of world-altering technology
intertwined with modern everyday life; yet, this pansophical statement serves as an ominous
prediction o f the manner in which computers and contemporary technology have surpassed human
intellect and reliability in many ways. Seegeneraly Wilma Abeles Iggers, KARL KRAUS: A VIENNESE
CRITIC OF THE TWENTIETH CENTRY (1967).
2. Seegeneraly David S. Wilson et al., Social Engineering Fraud in the Context of Computer and Funds
Transfer Fraud Coverages, FIDELITY & SURETY COMM. NEWSL. (ABA, Chicago, Ill.), Fall 2016, at 13
(describing common social engineering fraud schemes). Although the scenario described here is
fictional, it is indicative of a typical social engineering fraud scheme categorized as the executive
impersonation scam, characterized by a spoof or similar domain email sent by a high-ranking
individual in the company to a lower ranked employee relating to a 'top secret' acquisition, merger
or emergency situation. Id.
3. Seegeneraly Kunal Pandove et al., Email Spoofing, 5 INT. J. OF COMPUT. APPLICATIONS 27,
27-28 (2010) (describing methods used by fraudsters to send phishing emails either from
compromised email account or those which are spoofed to appear as though they are sent from
official account). Because fraudulent emails can bear the exact address and signature of the sender
whose credentials are imitated either by compromising the sender's email or by spoofing, it is often
difficult for the recipient to spot a phishing email. See id. at 27-28.
4. See generaly Justin Pritchard, Hon Wire Transfers Work: Sending and Receiving, BALANCE
https://www.thebalance.com/bank-wire-transfer-basics-315444 [https://perma.cc/AK3S-CB47]
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VILLANOVA LAW REVIEW ONLINE: TOLLE LEc:E
65 VILL. L. REV. TOLLE LEGE 1](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/vlrtoleg65&div=1&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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