How Vince Fumo almost got scammed online

Philadelphia citizen Vincent Fumo, still The Senator to his admirers as if the FBI never moved him from Harrisburg to Ashland, Ky., has a public-service warning:

Today's thieves are more brazen than ever online and it's easier to lose lots of money, fast, from one email.

Here's how it nearly happened to him:

It's boating season, and eager new captains like Fumo have been making payments to Drexel Hill's John McDevitt, broker at Bluewater Yachts, with offices from the Chesapeake to the Keys.

Last week, McDevitt emailed instructions for Fumo and another buyer to wire payments for their boats to his firm's account at a Virginia bank. Business as usual.

But then some ingenious person in cyberspace stepped in.

Shortly after McDevitt's email, Fumo told me, "I get another email from John, saying he'll be in meetings all day, it was a mistake, please wire it here with a different account number, it's the Wells Fargo Bank."

Fumo went to his Beneficial Bank branch to wire the money to the new address. While he waited, McDevitt happened to call, and Fumo mentioned the change in plans.

"We don't have an account at Wells Fargo," McDevitt told Fumo.

The same thing had nearly happened to another yacht buyer earlier in the week, McDevitt was all too well aware. That customer also narrowly avoided paying the stranger.

McDevitt immediately took steps to boost his email security.

He also had both men send him their phony invoices. He saw the email address was the same as his own, but ended in Yahoo.com instead of his provider.

The email hackers told both customers to send their money to the same Wells Fargo account. McDevitt called Wells Fargo.

"He's 45 minutes on the phone," Fumo told me. "Basically it's like they don't care."

"Once they saw there was no money lost, Wells Fargo didn't seem too concerned," McDevitt told me.

He asked the bank to identify the account owners "trying to steal money from my customers." He says they declined. (Wells Fargo officials asked me for copies of McDevitt's documents, then said they're looking into it.)

These "phishing" frauds occur so often, Wells Fargo has a special address for online reports. A banker gave it to McDevitt - ReportPhish@wellsfargo.com - so he could repeat his story.

The scam is going around: Realtors such as Long & Foster, and stockbrokers such as Raymond James & Associates, have lately told brokers to warn customers about "CEO fraud," since bosses tend to write the checks.

Blame digital progress: Auto theft collapsed when carmakers put computer chips in keys. Credit-card fraudsters are struggling as banks move beyond magnetic strips to issue more-secure code-activated chip cards.

So "hackers are turning more to online transactions," says Mark Greisiger, who heads NetDiligence, a Philadelphia corporate cybersecurity adviser.

"You can't trust email anymore. These phishing attacks that lead to wire fraud, it's a continuous thing now," Greisiger told me. "These guys are pretty sophisticated in duping controllers to write them money. They do reconnaissance. If the CEO or CFO is traveling, they go to work."

Fighting back, more firms are making controllers call senior officers to verify payments. Which defeats the goal of automation.

McDevitt also called the FBI, which sent him to its online complaint system, where he was asked how much money was stolen. Since that's zero so far, McDevitt fears his query sits in low priority there. (An FBI spokeswoman promised to look into it.)

Fumo says his girlfriend works in check cashing. He asked her if the con could be as simple as it looks: Wouldn't a boat-cash thief leave a "paper trail"?

Not these days, she told him. "When the money hits the Wells Fargo account, it bounces to some other account in Europe" for quick withdrawal. "And you're done."

JoeD@phillynews.com

215-854-5194@PhillyJoeD

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