Publishing giant fleeced of $8m

An e-mail scammer has stolen $8 million from global publishing giant Conde Nast after sending a fake printing invoice, reports IT Pro Portal.

The culprit, Andy Surface, sent an invoice e-mail supposedly on behalf of the printing firm which Conde Nast uses, asking the publisher to send payments to a new bank account.

Conde Nast, which publishes magazines like Vanity Fair, Vogue and The New Yorker, gets its printing work done by a company called Quad Graphics.

Conde Nast complied with the request made in the fake e-mail and wired around $8 million to the bank account under the name 'Quad Graph' over the next six weeks.

The publisher realised its mistake after Quad Graphics called to complain that it had not been receiving its payments.

Federal agents discovered the bank account was registered to Surface in Alvin, a suburb in Houston, US, says The Telegraph.co.uk.

According to reports, Surface moved $47 137.91 into an account in his own name. Almost all the money sent by Cond'e Nast was, however, still in the Quad Graphics account.

ComputerWeekly states that the publisher applied for a federal seizure warrant to freeze all funds sent to the bogus account until a forfeiture lawsuit was filed.

According to court papers, Surface has not yet been charged. But the case has shown how scammers can net large sums of money through e-billing and e-mail.