Facebook And Google Got Phished For $100M, No One Is Safe

At this point, practically everyone who uses the internet knows to look out for phishing scams. However, if even Facebook and Google are not immune to becoming victims, it seems no one is safe. It was recently revealed that the two tech companies were actually targeted by a scammer who took the company for a whopping $100 million.

This new report comes a month after the US Justice Department announced that it had made an arrest in connection to a phishing scam, with two US tech companies being the victims. After some investigation, Fortune found out that these companies were Facebook and Google, two of the biggest tech firms in the world and among the few that should have been immune from such practices.

What’s worse is the fact that the scam actually lasted years, starting in 2013 and continuing all the way to 2015. A Lithuanian man named Evaldas Rimasauskas, 40, was reportedly the perpetrator of the scam. His M.O. involved convincing the accounting departments of both companies to transfer money to his own accounts, which was worth tens of millions of dollars.

Rimasauskas has denied these allegations, with his lawyer saying that the investigation by a US-based department is not going to give him the fair trial that he needs. Rimasauskas’ defense attorney, Linas Kuprusevičius sent an email to the publication, denouncing the charges and making some serious allegations over the FBI’s treatment of his client.

“The uncertainty is further increased taking into account the behavior of FBI agents during the interrogations of Mr. Rimašaukas, frightening him with long years in US prisons, and the transfer of computers to US law enforcement officials, which was made without the presence of the owner,” the email reads.

On their part, both Facebook and Google confirmed to Gizmodo that they were indeed the two tech companies that were victimized by the phishing scam. It doesn’t seem as if the losses were that problematic for either firm, however, since the companies also noted that they have since recouped the funds that were stolen.