Phishing scams are pretty common but for the most part, email service providers such as Gmail typically do a good job at filtering them out. However, it seems that Shark Tank host Barbara Corcoran recently fell prey to such a scam, which resulted in her potentially losing $400,000 after an erroneous wire transfer.
According to Corcoran, she claims that someone who acted as her assistant sent her bookkeeper an invoice for a renovation project valued at close to $400,000. As Corcoran is an investor in real estate, this was not out of the ordinary which is why her bookkeeper did not think too much before wiring the money.
However, it was later discovered that she was scammed when her bookkeeper reached out to her assistant in a follow-up email. It was then revealed that the email used was not her assistant’s email, but rather an email designed to look like her assistant’s email that was misspelled with one letter.
Lesson learned: Be careful when you wire money! https://t.co/ICW7ij9N8V
— Barbara Corcoran (@BarbaraCorcoran) February 26, 2020
Corcoran later tweeted that she had learnt her lesson and that one needs to be more careful about wiring money. While initially upset, the TV host said that “it was only money”, and that she accepted the possibility that she may never be able to recover her money. The authorities are currently investigating the scam and it is unclear if they will be successful in retrieving Corcoran’s money.
Filed in . Read more about Hack and Security. Source: edition.cnn