Facebook and Google fell victim to $100m phishing scam

Facebook and GoogleLast month, the US Department of Justice announced the arrest of a Lithuanian man for the theft of more than $100m from ‘two US-based internet companies’.

It has now been revealed that those two companies were Facebook and Google, as a Fortune investigation discovered.

The man allegedly behind the scam, which he denies, Evaldas Rimasauskas, 48, is accused of posing as an Asia-based computer hardware manufacturer and deceiving the two companies for millions of dollars between 2013 and 2015. It is now known that this ‘Asia-based computer hardware manufacturer’ was Taiwan’s Quanta Computer.

“From half a world away, Evaldas Rimasauskas allegedly targeted multinational internet companies and tricked their agents and employees into wiring over $100 million to overseas bank accounts under his control,” said acting US attorney Joon H. Kim. “This case should serve as a wake-up call to all companies – even the most sophisticated – that they too can be victims of phishing attacks by cyber criminals. And this arrest should serve as a warning to all cyber criminals that we will work to track them down, wherever they are, to hold them accountable.”

The $100m has since been recovered but Rimasauskas faces charges over one count of wire fraud and three counts of money laundering – each of which carries a maximum 20-year sentence. He is also charged with one count of aggravated identity theft – carrying a mandatory minimum of two years imprisonment.