'Shark Tank' Star Barbara Corcoran Was Scammed Out of Nearly $400K
Barbara Corcoran was the victim of a phishing scam.
The Shark Tank star lost $388,700 after a hacker impersonated her assistant.
Barbara Corcoran is the latest victim of an internet scam.
The Shark Tank star lost nearly $400,000 as the result of a phishing scheme, People confirmed. It all started last week, when her bookkeeper received an email from her assistant “approving the payment for a real estate renovation.” Her bookkeeper then sent a wire payment that Tuesday.
“I lost the $388,700 as a result of a fake email chain sent to my company,” she told People. “There was no reason to be suspicious as I invest in a lot of real estate.”
Unfortunately, it was actually a hacker who had slightly tweaked her assistant’s email address, which they noticed when her bookkeeper followed up about the transaction. But at that point, it was too late.
“The money was wired to the scammer yesterday and my bookkeeper copied my assistant, who was shocked to see her name on the correspondence. The detail that no one caught was that my assistant’s email address was misspelled by one letter, making it the fake email address set up by the scammers,” she said.
According to TMZ, Barbara’s IT team traced the emails back to a Chinese IP address. Despite that, she holds out no hope that she’ll see the funds again.
“The scammer disappeared and I’m told that it’s a common practice, and I won’t be getting the money back,” she said. “I was upset at first, but then I remembered it was only money.”
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