Google, Facebook fell victim to alleged $100 mln scam

Google and Facebook have confirmed that they were victims of an alledged 100 million U.S. dollars payment scam, Fortune reported on Thursday.

The criminal case drew public attention last month, when U.S. Justice Department announced the arrest of a Lithuanian man who allegedly robbed more than 100 million dollars from two tech giants, although victims of the scheme remained unknown until this week.

The scam, which involves an email phishing attack, revealed the vulnerability of network security in even the most tech-savvy companies.

In 2013, a Lithuanian man named Evaldas Rimasauskas, 48, allegedly forged email addresses, invoices, and corporate stamps to impersonate a large Asian-based manufacturer, which has regular business interaction with the two tech giants.

The scheme successfully tricked them into paying for computer suppliers for two years. U.S. federal prosecutors said earlier that they had recovered much of the money.