Famous producer and talk show host Andy Cohen revealed he was defrauded of “a lot of money” in a phone scam.
Cohen spoke about his ordeal on the most recent episode of his “Daddy Diaries” podcast, saying “Someone called saying they were fraud alert from my bank,” as he recalled how the experience began. Cohen explained he believed the call was regarding potential fraud on his bank account, as he had recently lost his debit card, according to Page Six.
View this post on Instagram
The “Watch What It Happens Live” host wound up speaking to the fraudsters “for an hour and 10 minutes,” then noticed, “these people wired out of two accounts that I have a lot of money.” He didn’t specify exactly how much of a loss he experienced.
Cohen said that when the call first began, it immediately seemed suspicious to him, and admitted he provided the fraudsters with just enough information to do some damage to his finances.
“Then [they] asked for my Apple ID and password. And I was like, ‘OK, this never happens,'” he said.
“I had already logged into my bank app, and I think somehow, my logging in through whatever this site was gave them access to my bank app,” Cohen said, according to Page Six.
View this post on Instagram
By that time, he was aware that there was something very wrong going on, and he “bailed out” of the situation, but the damage had already been done, and money had already been withdrawn from his account.
Cohen went on to reveal how sophisticated the scammers were, noting that they had already managed to hack into the ID system, so the name of his bank actually appeared on his phone when he answered. They had also tricked him into setting up call forwarding from his phone, so he wasn’t receiving the calls or notices from his bank that were warning him about the large monetary transfers.
The caller that Cohen spoke with seemed to know his account, which made him believe he was speaking with a legitimate banking representative.
“They were naming credits that I had made – the charges – because they clearly had access to my account,” he said on the podcast, according to Page Six.
View this post on Instagram
Cohen is now on high alert and is looking back at this as a learning experience. (RELATED: Incarcerated Reality TV Star Todd Chrisley Alleges He Suffers Through Poor Prison Conditions)
“What I should have said is, ‘Can I call you back?’ Or what I should have maybe said is, ‘I’m gonna go to my bank and handle this,'” he noted.
“Part of my advice for people is that if something is happening, just go to your bank branch. And when you get emails, look very closely at the email address. It might say your bank’s name, but click on the name, and then the email address will appear, and you’ll see that it’s some other random address,” he said.