Pro-Bernie group hacked in quarter-million-dollar email scam

[brooklynite]

Source: Politico

The political nonprofit launched by Sen. Bernie Sanders in 2016 lost nearly a quarter-million dollars to an email scam that year, according to new tax documents obtained by POLITICO.

Our Revolution “was the victim of a Business E-Mail Compromise scam that took place in December 2016 but was not discovered until January 2017, resulting in the loss of approximately $242,000 via an electronic transfer of funds to an overseas account,” the group disclosed in its tax forms covering the year 2017, which were filed earlier this month.

“Our Revolution worked with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Our Revolution's counsel and an independent cyber-security consultant in an effort to identify the thieves and to recover the funds but, unfortunately, these efforts were unsuccessful.”

According to the FBI, the type of hack is also known as a “CEO impersonation.” In a common version of the scam, perpetrators infiltrate a company’s computer network and then make a fake wire transfer request that looks like it’s from a vendor with which the firm frequently does business. The type of scam had resulted in billions of dollars in losses, the FBI wrote in 2017.

Read more: https://www.politico.com/story/2018/11/29/email-scammers-stole-berniesanders-backed-our-revolution-1023851

[PatrickforO]

1. Scammers like this are the worst kind of pond scum.

Thieves in general.

[AllyCat]

2. Here I was hoping it was Jackpine Radicals

Those people are completely off the mark.

[radical noodle]

4. Off the mark is way too kind

for JPR, but yeah!

[Just a Weirdo]

3. This is actually more ccommon than you think

My boss got hit with it last year when she was out of the country. The bank nearly pulled it off until an inquiry was done and we had proof that it was fake. Now all large transfers are now done with two trustees and the boss. Safety measures and user education/awareness of such scam are a necessity.

[NurseJackie]

5. Wow! That's a lot of money to lose. A very expensive lesson to learn.

[Farmer-Rick]

6. Surprised that the FBI and cyber-security consultants couldn't help

Must be some really slick cons/hackers out there.

[Rizen]

7. That sucks.

[George II]

8. It wasn't really a hack, it was a scam that tricked them into sending them the money.

[NurseJackie]

10. That's even worse! I know that personally I'd feel pretty stupid...

That's even worse! I know that personally I'd feel pretty stupid if someone tricked me into letting them into my house, rather than if they picked the locks and broke-in while I wasn't at home.

My homeowners insurance would probably cover a great deal of my losses... so I wonder if there's any sort of business insurance that would protect organizations from this kind of loss.

I'll bet their donors aren't too happy about it either.

What a mess!

[TomCADem]

9. Was Jill Stein Also Hacked? What happened to recount money?

I know a lot of folks donated money to her crusade to conduct recounts following the 2016 election. Was this money stolen?

[still_one]

11. Perhaps Jill Stein were involved

I think

[George II]

12. This happened two years ago, I wonder why they took that long to tell the public?