This time, a phish caught a shark.
The Corcoran Group founder Barbara Corcoran reportedly lost almost $400,000 on Wednesday after falling victim to a phishing scam, a type of fraud in which personal information is obtained via realistic-seeming fake emails.
According to TMZ, the “Shark Tank” star’s bookkeeper received an email last week — that appeared to have been sent by Corcoran’s assistant — giving a thumbs-up to pay a German company called FFH Concept GmbH $388,700.11. Her bookkeeper asked what the money was for and received a response from the “assistant” claiming the money was for designing the German apartment units Corcoran, 70, invested in.
Unfortunately for the bookkeeper, FFH Concept GmbH is a real company and Corcoran does invest in real estate, so the transaction seemed legitimate, until, that is, the bookkeeper sent off the payment and emailed Corcoran’s actual assistant a follow-up.
It turned out the fraudster had changed just one letter in the assistant’s real email address to create the fake from which the fraudulent messages were sent.
Corcoran’s team told TMZ the money is already gone, but they’ve reportedly traced the scam emails back to an IP address in China, and her lawyers are working out their next steps.
Corcoran may not feel the loss too much. Last month, she was reported to have an estimated net worth of $80 million.
Corcoran’s team did not immediately return our request for comment.
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