14 DAY TRIAL // Google and Facebook are the two companies whose employees fell victim to the phishing scheme from March that reportedly scammed people out of $100 million.
Remember a month ago when reports indicated that two tech companies were tricked into paying north of $100 million by a Lithuanian man? Well, it seems those companies are none other than Google and Facebook.
"This case should serve as a wake-up call to all companies - even the most sophisticated - that they too can be victims of phishing attacks by criminals," said the US Attorney at the time.
Evaldas Rimasauskas, the scammer that was indicted by the US, pretended to be a popular Asian computer hardware company by registering his own company in Latvia back in 2014, holding the same name. He then forged emails from employees of the Asian firm and started sending invoices to the two US tech companies who had this company as a hardware supplier. Without checking too much the emails they received, the companies started paying.
The money was sent to his bank accounts in Latvia and Cyprus, adding up to more than $100 million. The money was then spread over multiple accounts in Latvia, Slovakia, and Hong Kong.
The scheme also involved phishing employees of Google and Facebook and getting his hands on files that helped him forge contracts and letters with the names and signatures of execs from the company he was impersonating.
Even the big ones can be fooled
Well, Fortune now reports that the two companies targeted by the scheme are Google and Facebook, while the company the Latvian hacker was impersonating is Quanta Computer, a Taiwanese parts supplier, which also works with Apple and Amazon.
Facebook and Google eventually admitted to being the unnamed companies in last month's reports. Facebook said they'd managed to recover the bulk of the funds and has been cooperating with law enforcement in the investigation. Similarly, Google got its money back.
The investigation isn't anywhere near over, however, as Rimasauskas continues to deny any involvement in the scheme, as he tries to fight his extradition to the United States.