Oct 4, 2024
The tragic story of a woman who says she lost a six-figure sum to online fraudsters is evidence that no one is safe from cybercrime — not even a tech-savvy Silicon Valley executive.
Rana Robillard was ecstatic when she thought she'd landed a four-bedroom, three-bathroom home earlier this year in Orinda, California, a half-hour drive from her office in Pleasanton.
Advertisement
After beating three other bidders, she wired $400,000 to an account per instructions she received in an email. But it turned out the message asking for the funds wasn’t from the mortgage company. It appears to have been a scammer who somehow intercepted the conversation and spoofed the broker’s email address, according to NBC Bay Area.
Thanks for subscribing!
Read the best of Moneywise in 5 minutes or less.
By signing up, you accept Moneywise Terms of Use, Subscription Agreement, and Privacy Policy.
With one click, her life savings vanished.
"The day after I funded the wire, the title company reached out to me to set up the signing of the papers, and I asked if they had received the funds," Robillard told the local broadcaster on July 23. "They said ‘no,’ and my heart sank."
Robillard, the Chief People Officer at cloud technology company Tekion Corp., never got to move into the attractive single-family ranch home, built in 1950. It seems to have been relisted and sold for $1.45 million.
After a months-long battle, Robillard was able to recoup her money, according to NBC Bay Area. Now, she wishes her story to serve as a warning to fellow house hunters.
“Why is cybercrime happening to businesses, to individuals, every day, and there’s just not enough protections?” she wondered aloud.
Why all Americans need to be wary
The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center says in 2023 it received 21,489 complaints regarding compromised business emails, amounting to $2.9 billion in adjusted losses. These scams target both businesses and customers with fraudulent requests of funds, including for real estate transactions.
Rathbun Insurance describes how property wire transfer fraud like the one that hit Robillard can happen. It’s possible for fraudsters to hijack email addresses via passwords purchased off the dark web, or use phishing techniques to trick employees into entering login credentials. They can then comb through emails to find targets and set up a bogus transfer, either using an agent’s real email account or by spoofing it.
Must Read
- The ultra-rich use these 5 real estate strategies to build wealth while they sleep — you can start with just $100
- Here’s the average income of Americans by age in 2026. Are you keeping up or falling behind?
- Insurance companies profit most from drivers who auto-renew without shopping around. Comparing 100+ quotes takes 2 minutes and costs nothing
Join 250,000+ readers and get Moneywise’s best stories and exclusive interviews first — clear insights curated and delivered weekly. Subscribe now.
How you can protect yourself
Robillard’s story demonstrates how anybody can be sucked into the cybercrime vortex by increasingly resourceful thieves. No one, sadly, is completely safe. But there are simple steps that can provide strong measures of protection.
Advertisement
First and foremost, don’t simply wire money to anyone who requests it by email, even if the email’s address and contents look legitimate. Don’t click on any links that ask you to enter financial information, and when in doubt, call the person you’ve been doing business with to confirm the email is legitimate. When sums as large as Robillard’s are on the line, insist on completing the transaction in person or by other secure means set up by the broker’s company.
It’s also healthy to check your account activity regularly to ensure your finances are in order.
Two-factor authentication also bolsters your account security and can reduce the risk of identity theft by up to 99%, according to Gitnux, a market research platform.
As for passwords, change them regularly to protect yourself in the event of a data breach — or, even better, use a password manager.
And by all means, avoid any of the ten most common passwords on this list from Cybernews, with “123456” topping them all. Read backwards, it could be the ultimate countdown to money misery.
You May Also Like
- JP Morgan sees gold hitting $6,000/oz before 2027 — and a Gold IRA lets you hold the physical metal while deferring the tax bill. Get your free guide from Priority Gold
- Dave Ramsey warns nearly 50% of Americans are making 1 big Social Security mistake — here’s what it is and the simple steps to fix it ASAP
- Thanks to Jeff Bezos, you can now become a landlord for as little as $100 — and no, you don't have to deal with tenants or fix freezers. Here's how
- Millionaires under 43 are reshaping investing — just 25% of their portfolios are in stocks. Here’s where their money is going
Lou Carlozo is a freelance contributor to Moneywise.
