“Shark Tank” star Barbara Corcoran has been swindled out of nearly $400,000 in an email phishing scam, she told People.
“I lost the $388,700 as a result of a fake email chain sent to my company,” Corcoran said. “It was an invoice supposedly sent by my assistant to my bookkeeper approving the payment for a real estate renovation. There was no reason to be suspicious as I invest in a lot of real estate.”
Corcoran’s bookkeeper had received the email from someone she thought was Corcoran’s assistant and made the payment for the renovation earlier this week.
No one suspected anything was amiss until the bookkeeper sent an email to the real email address used by Corcoran’s assistant letting her know the payment was made.
“The money was wired to the scammer yesterday and my bookkeeper copied my assistant, who was shocked to see her name on the correspondence,” Corcoran said. “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.”
The money, however, had already been withdrawn. Corcoran said she doesn’t expect to recover the funds.
“The scammer disappeared and I’m told that it’s a common practice, and I won’t be getting the money back,” she said.Even though she was victimized, Corcoran is trying to keep things in perspective.“I was upset at first, but then remembered it was only money,” she told People.
