Shark Tank judge Barbara Corcoran lost nearly $400,000 in an elaborate email scam that tricked her staff.
Corcoran said someone acting as her assistant sent an invoice to her bookkeeper earlier this week for a renovation payment. Staff believed there was "no reason to be suspicious" about the email because she invests in real estate, so the bookkeeper wired $388,700 to the email address.
The problem was that the email address didn't belong to her assistant. The scammer imitated her assistant's email address and misspelled it with one letter. The mistake wasn't caught until the bookkeeper emailed the assistant's correct address for a follow-up.
Corcoran fell for a phishing scam, which is common: Nearly 30,000 people reported being a victim of that type of scam last year. Together they reported nearly $50 million in losses, according to the FBI's 2018 Internet Crime Report.
Phishing attacks are common methods of stealing usernames, passwords and money. Hackers pretend to be a trustworthy source to convince you to share personal data. To be safe, it's important to make sure the sender is authentic before clicking on a link.
Source: CNN Business
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