'Business Email Compromise' scam sabotages SoCal couple's dream to build theater

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- Actress Tamlyn Tomita and her husband Daniel Blinkoff are working to build their dream, a theater in Los Angeles where they hope to put on performances that can be livestreamed to audiences around the world.

But their ambitions have suffered a serious setback after they and their contractors fell victim to a scam that robbed them of nearly half a million dollars.

It's called a business email compromise, and it involves scammers pretending to be a contractor seeking payment for a job, but providing a false link that allows them to steal the payments.

Still, the couple are continuing to build the project, called the Outside In Theatre.

"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 says. "Stories that have not been told or well represented."

Tamlyn has appeared in a number of recognizable films and TV projects, including "Karate Kid 2" and "The Joy Luck Club."

The scam began when the couple began receiving emails that appeared to be from the 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," Blinkoff says. "He was receiving fraudulent emails."

Investigators say this is an all-too-common scam. Crooks will send you an email that looks right but there will be a small change in the sender's address or link you might not notice.

"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," says Sgt. Sgt. Vahe Abramyan with the Glendale Police Department.

"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."

Last year, the FBI received more than 21,000 complaints about similar scams from people just living in the Los Angeles area. The total loss for those victims was nearly $3 billion.

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

They typically will target an accounting department. Business owners are advised to educate their employees about taking extra steps to verify that money was sent to the correct account.

When Blinkoff saw the email it appeared to be legitimately from his contractor so he didn't think twice when he used the information to send money to pay for the construction work.

"We sent the money and our contractors alerted us a week later that they hadn't gotten it," he says.

The FBI says these attackers are often from out of the country. So when the money is sent, it is very difficult to get it back. They often search through social media for information about their victims.

"They'll look for anything that is is related to you," Shelton says. "Family, friends, loved ones, pet names, and they'll try to use that for social engineering purposes.

In this case Daniel and Tamlyn are trying to work with their bank, Citibank. They feel the bank needs to help customers with fraud cases like this one.

"They've frozen Daniel's account," Tamlyn says. "We can't get to the monies in order to finish the building the construction of our theater. We find ourselves in a Catch-22 situation with not only the fraudulent person, but also with our financial institution Citibank."

Despite the financial setback the plan is to open the theater on time on Sept. 18. Daniel and Tamlyn say they still have hope.

"Hope is good. Hope is always going to take you to the end of the day. And at the end of the day it's all about doing what we can for each other."

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