"Shark Tank" star Barbara Corcoran's bank account is back intact after scammers tried to take a big bite out of it.
Three days after scammers made off with nearly $400,000 of Barbara's money, TMZ reports that she got it back with the help of a Berlin-based bank.
Earlier in the week, TMZ reported that an email chain was forwarded to Barbara's bookkeeper that appeared to show the reality TV star's executive assistant saying that Barbara had approved a $388,700.11 payment to a company called FFH Concept GmbH in Germany. Barbara actually has real estate dealings in Germany, so the request didn't exactly seem out of the ordinary.
However, the money-requesting email didn't come from her executive assistant, but rather from an email that looked just like it — the bookkeeper didn't notice that the scammers changed the assistant's email address by removing one letter, so unbeknownst to her, they were the ones actually communicating.
After asking all the appropriate questions, the bookkeeper sent off the requested wire payment to the account listed in the original email. Afterward, she messaged the assistant at her real email. It was then that they discovered they had been victims of the phishing scam. Barbara's team traced the original scam emails back to a Chinese IP address.
The German bank that the money was sent to, however, was no patsy. After getting wind of the hoax, it froze the account before the money could be forwarded to Asia, TMZ said on Friday.
Barbara told the website that her New York City bank also got involved and pressured the Germans to step in.