Google and Facebook confirmed as victims of $100m phishing scam

Google and Facebook fell victim to a $100 million email scam. The attack was first reported in March when feds arrested a Lithuanian man named Evaldas Rimasauskas for perpetrating the phishing scheme. Back then companies' identities remained a secret.

In this type of scam, the attacker tricks the victim by "disguising as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication". Rimasauskas did this in 2013 when he forged invoices, emails and stamps to impersonate Quanta Computer - a Taiwan-based manufacturer of notebook computers, home entertainment and mobile communication devices. So, posing as Quanta Computer, the scammer deluded the accounting departments of both Facebook and Google, and made them pay him over $100 million in two years.

"Facebook recovered the bulk of the funds shortly after the incident and has been cooperating with law enforcement in its investigation," a company spokesperson said.

"We detected this fraud against our vendor management team," said a Google spokesperson, "And promptly alerted the authorities. We recouped the funds and we're pleased this matter is resolved."

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