Shark Tank's Barbara Corcoran Loses $388,700 After Employee Falls for Phishing Scam

Barbara Corcoran is probably hoping she finds a great investment soon on Shark Tank because she just lost hundreds of thousands of dollars from a phishing scam.

The 70-year-old businesswoman has confirmed that she lost $388,700 due to a phishing scam that targeted an employee at her company.

“I lost the $388,700 as a result of a fake email chain sent to my company,” Barbara said in a statement to People. “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.”

The bookkeeper thought she was actually communicating with Barbara‘s assistant and she went ahead with the wire payment, but then phishing scam was discovered when she sent a separate email to the assistant and the company became aware of altered email address created by a hacker.

“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,” Barbara said.

“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 remembered it was only money.”

TMZ reports that the emails were traced to an IP address in China.

At least she has a positive attitude about it all!