‘Email Scam Shatters SoCal Couple’s Dream Theater Project’

Actress Tamlyn Tomita and her husband Daniel Blinkoff are working diligently to establish their dream theater in Los Angeles. They envision a space where they can stage performances and livestream them to a global audience.

Unfortunately, their aspirations faced a significant hurdle when they fell victim to a scam. The scam cost them nearly half a million dollars and involved their contractors as well.

The scam is known as a business email compromise. Scammers masquerade as legitimate contractors seeking payment, providing fraudulent links that divert funds. Despite this setback, Tamlyn and Daniel are pressing on with their project, aptly named the Outside In theater.

“It’s a concept about building a community space and a theater space where we literally have to go outside into our neighborhood and invite them inside to tell their stories,” Tamlyn explains. The couple aims to highlight stories that have not been well represented.

The scam unfolded when the couple began receiving emails that seemed to be from their theater project contractor. “It was an email – a fraudulent email – that was sent within the contractor’s mail system and also to our managing director of the project. He was receiving fraudulent emails,” Tamlyn recounts.

Investigators note that this type of scam is unfortunately common. Scammers craft emails that appear legitimate with only slight alterations in the sender’s address or links that are easy to overlook.

Sgt. Vahe Abramyan from the Glendale Police Department explains, “That’s exactly what these scammers try to do to people – the email will appear that it’s from your contractor or a vendor that you’re working with. It typically will have some sort of variation to it. There might be a period that’s a little bit offset, maybe an extra space in there. The general name at first glance looks like the person you think you’re talking to.”

The scale of this issue is vast. Last year, the FBI received over 21,000 complaints about similar scams just within the Los Angeles area, with total losses nearing $3 billion.

Leroy Shelton from the FBI elaborates, “Individuals who are clicking on links or downloading software then have their computers compromised. At that point, cyber actors or hackers will then look through their email as well as their information online.”

The scammers typically target accounting departments, making it essential for business owners to educate their employees on verifying payment accounts.

When Blinkoff received the fraudulent email, it seemed legitimate, so he didn’t hesitate to use the provided information to send the payment for construction work. “We sent the money and our contractors alerted us a week later that they hadn’t gotten it,” he says.

The FBI notes that these attackers are often international, making it challenging to recover the stolen funds. They frequently scour social media for their target’s personal information.

“They’ll look for anything related to you,” Shelton adds. “Family, friends, loved ones, pet names, and they’ll try to use that for social engineering purposes.”

In their case, Daniel and Tamlyn are currently working with their bank, Citibank, to resolve the issue. They believe the bank should assist customers dealing with such fraud cases.

“They’ve frozen Daniel’s account,” says Tamlyn. “We can’t access the money needed to complete the construction of our theater. We find ourselves in a Catch-22 with not only the fraudulent party but also with our financial institution, Citibank.”

Despite this financial challenge, they plan to open the theater on time on September 18. Daniel and Tamlyn remain optimistic.

“Hope is always going to take you through the day,” Tamlyn concludes, “and at the end of the day, it’s all about doing what we can for each other.”

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Source: ABC7