One of your favorite Shark Tank stars has been scammed out of nearly $400,000.
Here’s what you need to know.
Shark Tank
Barbara Corcoran, the real estate guru and co-star of ABC’s Shark Tank, admits she was recently the victim of an email phishing scam.
“I lost the $388,700 as a result of a fake email chain sent to my company,” Corcoran told People. “It was an invoice supposedly sent by my assistant to my bookkeeper approving the payment for a real estate renovation. There was no reason to be suspicious as I invest in a lot of real estate.”
Corcoran’s bookkeeper communicated with the scammer, who used an email address similar to Corcoran’s assistant’s email address.
“The money was wired to the scammer yesterday and my bookkeeper copied my assistant, who was shocked to see her name on the correspondence,” Corcoran, who founded real estate brokerage firm The Corcoran Group, explained to People. “The detail that no one caught was that my assistant’s email address was misspelled by one letter, making it the fake email address set up by the scammers.”
Even the smartest sharks can be tricked by scammers. Here are some other common scams that you should avoid - and what to do instead.
1. Student Loan Forgiveness Scam
The Setup: A student loan debt company - usually through an online ad or email - will, for a fee, help forgive your student loans.
The Reality:
- A third party company will not forgive your student loans.
- This is a scam that sounds like Public Service Loan Forgiveness, which is a federal government program. There are no fees for this program.
- If the company claims to have a relationship with the U.S. Department of Education, it is a scam.
- Don't pay an upfront fee for student loan debt relief.
- Importantly, there is no student loan forgiveness for private student loans.
The Action:
Report the scam to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).
2. IRS Scam
The Setup: You receive a phone call from someone claiming to be an IRS agent who claims that you owe unpaid income tax. (You may receive a similar phone call regarding Social Security tax as well). If you do not make immediate payment, the caller says that you will be arrested or face a lawsuit.
The Reality:
- The IRS doesn’t simply call taxpayers about income taxes. The IRS will always contact you first by mail before calling you.
- The IRS will never demand immediate payment or threaten arrest.
- If the caller demands a wire transfer, you should know that you’re not speaking with the IRS.
- The IRS will not threaten you with arrest or deportation for not paying your taxes.
- If you receive a “phishing” email, you should know that the IRS will not request personal or financial information by email.
The Action:
- Hang up the phone. If you think you may owe federal taxes, you can call the IRS at 1-800-829-1040 or visit the IRS website for help.
- You can report the scam to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration or call 1-800-366-4484.
- You can file a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and add "IRS Telephone Scam" to the complaint description. You can also call 1-877-FTC-HELP (1-877-382-4357).
- If you receive an unsolicited, online message requesting immediate payment to the IRS, you can report the message to phishing@irs.gov.
3. Student Loan Consolidation Scam
The Setup: A student loan company will, for a fee, consolidate your student loans and lower your monthly payments.
The Reality:
- Student loan consolidation is a program through the federal government, not a third party company.
- There is no fee for student loan consolidation.
- If the company claims to have a relationship with the U.S. Department of Education, it is a scam.
- Importantly, student loan consolidation does not lower your interest or monthly payment. Rather, your monthly payment is equal to a weighted average of the interest rates on your current federal student loans, rounded up to the nearest 1/8%.
The Action:
You can also consolidate your federal loans (not private student loans) into a Direct Consolidation Loan with the federal government. This student loan calculator shows you whether you will save more money through student loan consolidation or student loan refinancing.
The best way to lower your student loan interest rate and monthly payment is to refinance your student loans. With student loan refinancing, there are no origination fees or prepayment penalties, and you can find out your new student loan interest rate in two minutes without any impact to your credit score. Student loan refinancing rates just got incredibly cheap and start at 1.89%.
This article originally appeared on Frobes.
