UNKNOWN agency co-founders thought they were getting one of the top pop stars in the music industry for their music and fashion show coming up on September 21st. What they didn’t realize was that they were being scammed for $70K.
Half way through their emails with Los Angeles based talent booking agency, Creative Artists Agency. The hackers managed to change few letters in the email address, co-founder Stan Rector explains “I feel like I’m somebody who will never get scammed, I don’t pick up weird phone calls, or answer emails saying I won a prize. I’m pretty cautious, but to think your e-mail can get hacked half way through the conversation.”
The other co-founder Eduard Soponar said, “Make sure that you check all the time with the talent agency or anyone from the company. You call the accountant, you call whoever you can call before you do those kinds of transfers.”
Soponer’s emails and banking information was sent to Dutch Bank on July 17th and the $70K was reversed to the UNKNOWN agency’s account.
The cybersecurity team is further investigating the incident.
This goes to show and remind us how equipped and ahead the hackers are always , not only were they able to fraud the agency for $70K (which was reversed to the agency) but the manner they did it in and how they were able to hack the email correspondence between the two agencies.
We should always keep a keen eye on the details, especially when it involves any sort of transactions. The best way to perform such transactions are when you call the other party over the phone and ensure the details are correct.
Sam
It’s just so easy to get scammed nowadays!!