Silicon Valley exec accidentally sent $400,000 down payment to a scammer — now she’s warning house hunters

The tragic story of a woman who lost a six-figure sum to online fraudsters proves 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.

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After beating three other bidders, Robillard wired $400,000 to an account per instructions she received in an email. But it turned out the message asking for the funds was from a scammer who intercepted the conversation and spoofed the broker’s email address.

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 NBC Bay Area 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)(https://www.realtor.com/ realestateandhomes-detail/19-El-Pulgar_Orinda_CA_94563_M18517-87256) for $1.6 million.

After a months-long battle, Robillard was able to recover most of his 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.

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How you can protect yourself

Robillard’s case 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.

First and foremost, never 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.

Speaking of 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’s the ultimate countdown to money misery.

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This article provides information only and should not be constructed as advice. It is provided without warranty of any kind.