A fraudulent man stole $100 million from Facebook and Google by sending fake invoices and requesting money via email.
A recent high-profile scam has revealed how a man defrauded Facebook and Google of $100 million simply by sending fraudulent invoices.
Evaldas Rimasauskas, a Lithuanian national, deceived Facebook and Google with a clever scheme.
He used fake emails and bogus invoices to trick the tech giants into paying large sums of money.
Fraudulent man occupies $100M from Facebook and Google by sending fake invoices asking them for money
Evaldas Rimasauskas, a Lithuanian, pulled off a complex scam that amazed Facebook and Google. He stole $122 million from both companies.
Rimasauskas pretended to be the real Taiwanese company Quanta Computer.
He forged invoices, contracts, and letters, making them look like Facebook and Google executives had signed them.
Between 2013 and 2015, Rimasauskas sent fake invoice requests to both companies.
The bills totaled $23 million for Google and $99 million for Facebook.
Rimasauskas deceived both tech giants because of their past dealings with Quanta Computer.
They transferred funds to bank accounts he controlled in Latvia and Cyprus, falling for his elaborate scam.
The most alarming part of this scam was that Facebook and Google employees didn’t check if the invoices were real before making the payments.
Rimasauskas took advantage of this lack of careful checking.
He used the trust and systems of Facebook and Google to carry out his detailed scam.
However, Lithuanian authorities caught Rimasauskas’s illicit activities in 2017 and arrested him before extraditing him to New York.
pleads guilty to stealing $100m from Google and Facebook by sending fake invoices
In 2019, Rimasauskas pleaded guilty to wire fraud and was sentenced to 60 months in prison.
He was also ordered to forfeit $49.7 million and pay nearly $26.5 million in restitution.
US Attorney Joon Kim said in a statement:
“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 cybercriminals.
“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 charges and arrest in this case were made possible thanks to the terrific work of the FBI and the cooperation of the victim companies and their financial institutions.
“We thank the companies and their banks for acting quickly, coming forward promptly, and cooperating with law enforcement; it led not only to the charges announced today, but also the recovery of much of the stolen funds.”