A couple from Wilmington, Illinois saw their life savings vanish after being targeted as part of a wire scam.
William and Nancy Skog lost $300,000, the equivalent of £239,127, lost their retirement savings to the scammers.
The couple received a fraudulent email with closing instructions that they thought were real so followed, and they ended up losing their hard-earned money as a result.
In this particular scam, the fraudsters posed as their real estate attorneys who were helping them with a purchase.
READ MORE: ISA alert as ‘early bird’ savers can avoid brutal ‘tax trap’
Speaking to ABC 7 Chicago, William held back tears when he recalled discovering his retirement savings had been stolen.
He said: “We were in shock. I could barely drive home. It is [hard].”
Overall, the Skogs wired $307,000 (£244,706.63) to the scammers which was the entirety of their life savings.
With no money left, the married couple were forced to rely on their daughter to help close on the home.
Don’t miss…
Nancy explained: “As soon as they said [there was no money], the tears started flowing because I thought, ‘What are we going to do?’.”
William added: “We sent the money. We sent it about two weeks before. It was what we were told to do.”
The pair’s retirement savings were successfully taken from them thanks to spoofing technology to make it look as if the email correspondence came from the Skog’s lawyers.
Included in the fraudulent email was an attachment which featured the attorney’s letterhead and the address of the couple’s purchased home.
On the extent of the scammer’s operations, Nancy said: “The email they copied or the signatures from the lawyer from the real estate: perfect.”
Despite this attention to detail, the letter did appear to have some basic spelling errors which experts believe is a warning sign.
Shawn Kanady from cybersecurity company Trustwave spoke with ABC News Chicago about how people can better protect themselves.
He said: “Anyone can fall for it, especially if an attachment comes along that looks to be your closing documents.”
FBI special agent Eric Shiffman said authorities will be scouring the servers of everyone involved to determine how the alleged hack took place.
Agent Shiffman explained: “We want to do is find out what the point of intrusion was.
“Who got the original hack? How did they get in? What did the bad guys have access to?”
At the time of filming, the Skogs’ only chance of getting their retirement savings back was through an insurance claim of whichever business was hacked.
