World's most gullible supermarket chain falls victim to online scam
Trying to get back $10m wired to bogus accounts
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Red-faced accountants from one of the biggest supermarket chains in the US are frantically trying to regain control of more than $10m lost after falling victim to online fraudsters.
Evidently, no one at Minnesota-based Supervalu bothered to confirm the authenticity of emails sent in late February. Purporting to come from two of the company's suppliers, the messages instructed Supervalu to wire all future payments to new bank accounts. One email purported to come from representatives of Frito-Lay and the other from American Greetings. Both suppliers have established relationships with the grocery chain.
The emails were phony, but within two days, Supervalu began moving money into the accounts. Over the course of a week, the company transferred $10,128941.94 in nine separate payments. One account was administered by HSBC Bank in Miami and the other by First Security Bank in Arkansas. Once Supervalu discovered the accounts were bogus, it alerted federal authorities, which quickly froze the accounts before the scammers could withdraw the money.
The sad tale was outlined in documents filed in US District Court in Idaho. Attorneys for Supervalu, which owns the Albertsons chain, are arguing that the company should recover the full amount because it was a victim, has committed no wrongdoing, and has cooperated fully with investigators. Gross gullibility is no legal deterrent to getting the money back, we gather.
The story was reported earlier by Computerworld. A Supervalu spokeswoman told the site that "due to our internal controls and processes, we were able to quickly discover and report this to the FBI." Any losses are likely to be minimal, she said. ®
COMMENTS
@ Hollerith
"The McD coffee was unbeleivably, third-degree burns hot"
You're right, I don't believe it. Boiling water/coffee is 212 degrees F or 100 C. Third-degree burns consist of charred skin and flesh, and would have to be caused by something considerably hotter, in the general neighborhood of 450F or more.
And placing a styrofoam cup of coffee between one's thighs *is* Darwin Award material.
Dont' you have some cards to punch or something?
@More on hot coffee
I like my coffee hot, not warm. When I get a cup in the morning I expect it to be to hot to spill on myself.
@Pity and Tom
It will never be illegal to be either an incompetent or a moron, or even both.
Why?
Just look at the lawmakers both here in the UK and in the US (and to be truthful, pretty much anywhere else) and you'll see why.
For any government to legislate against moronic incompetence and stupidity would be pretty much like turkeys demanding all-year-round Christmas..
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