EXCLUSIVE: Lakewood business-owner nearly phished out of $35,000 (PHOTOS)

When a Lakewood resident received a call from his accountant saying she couldn’t overnight that $35,000 check he had requested, he had no idea what she was talking about. That’s because the email which allegedly came from him, never actually came from him.

After a couple of minutes on the phone yesterday, the Lakewood business owner figured out this was a professional hacker doing a job – which nearly cost his company a lot of money.

The hacker had figured out who his accountant was, and composed an email to her, making it appear as if he had sent it – requesting she send out a check of $35,000 to a company they allegedly do business with. And then he followed up with her to make sure she’s sending out the check.

”When she called me and said, “I can’t overnight that check you asked me to send, I was like, what check?” the business-owner told TLS.

Thinking back, the business-owner says he believes the hacker may have gained access to his system via a phishing email he received a few days earlier.

“I happened to have been having issues with my email, so when I got an email from Microsoft, I clicked on the link,” he said. That link, which requested he put in his password, was apparently the gateway the hacker used to get into his computer and files.

The business-owner is hoping people will use this frightening incident as a lesson.

”People should always make sure the emails they receive are official,” he said. ”What I’m taking from here is, I’m now making it mandatory in my company that check-requests over a certain amount need to be confirmed by a partner or over the phone,” he said.

 

This content, and any other content on TLS, may not be republished or reproduced without prior permission from TLS. Copying or reproducing our content is both against the law and against Halacha. To inquire about using our content, including videos or photos, email us at [email protected].

Stay up to date with our news alerts by following us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

**Click here to join over 20,000 receiving our Whatsapp Status updates!**

**Click here to join the official TLS WhatsApp Community!**

Got a news tip? Email us at [email protected], Text 415-857-2667, or WhatsApp 609-661-8668.

2 COMMENTS

  1. I get several dozen similar looking emails a week and can typically spot it based on the email subject line.

    Luckily, I have a good eye for these things and usually don’t open the emails in the first place.

    I was always wondering who actually falls for these scams but, apparently, people need a bit of education on how to identify spam.

    If it’s not someone you recognize:

    99.9% of the emails asking you to send/wire/transfer money are SPAM.

    99.99% of the emails asking you to open invoices/attachments/bills are SPAM.

    99.99% of the emails that use words like Dear/Sir/Madam/Greetings SPAM

    100% of email with funny and obscure subject lines like the one above are SPAM

    Anyway, hope this helps 😉

  2. Happened to us once too. someone hacked our email and emailed our bank that we would be wiring money later that day. there had been emails to the bank, so they just copied them. the bank called us up to confirm. what made her think it was fishy? our emails were informal and this email was written formally, with please and thank you!

Comments are closed.