Andy Cohen has spoken out about having large amounts of money stolen from his bank account after falling for a highly convincing, elaborate scam.
The Bravo host, 55, revealed last week that he had recently fallen victim to a credit card and banking fraud and was in the process of recovering the stolen money.
Cohen shared more details about the alarming experience in an interview with DailyMail.com on Tuesday, detailing how he managed to get scammed after “unknowingly” giving scammers access to his account.
The television personality explained that he was targeted at a vulnerable time because he had coincidentally recently lost his card and was awaiting a replacement when he received an email that appeared to be from his bank.
“It started online and then they called and they had information that I unknowingly gave them,” he explained when asked about the New York City ordeal.
“So that made me think they were really coming off my couch. They were very good at what they did. It can happen to anyone.’
Andy Cohen spoke with DailyMail.com in New York City on Tuesday and shared more details about his experience falling prey to a banking scam
Cohen explained that he received a fraudulent email from what appeared to be his bank and then unknowingly gave his information to the scammers.
The CNN New Year’s Eve host previously revealed that he received an email from an imposter that contained a fraudulent link that took him to a page where he was asked to log in with his credentials – essentially giving scammers access to his account.
He then received a call from who he thought was a bank representative wanting to alert him to strange activity on his account.
Cohen explained that he was willing to discuss his financial information on the phone because the scammers, who already had access to his account at the time, could provide a summary of purchases he had recently made.
It was during his hour and ten minute phone call that he was tricked into setting up a forwarding on his phone via ‘codes’ he received from the scammer – which he would later realize had actually been a trick to facilitate transfers from his phone. account.
Cohen urged the public to use his experience as a cautionary tale that even generally smart people can still fall victim to such scams, and advised others to look for warning signs.
‘When people email you and say they’re from somewhere, look carefully at the email address. “If someone calls you and says they’re from the bank or from somewhere, tell them you’ll call them back,” he said.
‘Call the number on the back of your card or go to your bank.
‘It can happen to anyone. I am not. I don’t consider myself a foolish person. But it happened to me.”
The Watch What Happens Live host is working to get his money back and advises anyone who may be contacted by potential scammers to ‘just go to your bank branch’
When asked if he has had any success in recovering the stolen money, he replied: “Um, I’m working on it.”
A recent report from DailyMail.com found that as many as 21 million adults were defrauded in similar schemes by 2023, with 8 percent of Americans tricked into sending money or accessing a financial institution in the past year.
Cohen first opened up about the ordeal on a December 22 episode of his Daddy Diaries podcast.
The Bravolebrity explained that he didn’t want to “get too deep into what happened,” but told co-host John Hill that he was misled by someone claiming to be from his bank’s fraud alert department.
“I lost a card and requested a replacement for it, and I got an email saying, ‘There may be fraud on your account,’ and I was like, ‘Oh, this one comes with the card I lost.’ ‘, he said.
According to the What’s Happening Live host, he logged into the site referenced in the email, but alarm bells started ringing when the person he was speaking to asked for his Apple ID and password.
“I had already logged into my banking app,” he said. “I think I somehow got access to my banking app through some site.”
The Bravolebrity told co-host John Hill that he had been misled by someone claiming to be from his bank’s fraud alert department. “I lost a card and requested (a replacement for) it, and I got an email saying, ‘There may be fraud on your account,’” he explained (pictured in New York in December 2023).
“She said, ‘I want you to put these numbers into your phone.’ “I went to the keyboard and punched in some numbers that she told me to enter,” he explained.
“And what came up on my screen was this screen that basically said, I had call forwarding and message forwarding set up on my phone.”
Andy revealed that when he went to the bank the next day, large sums of money had been withdrawn from his accounts and he was unaware of it due to the forwarding he had been persuaded to put on his phone.
“Ever since I set up the forwarding, the calls went to the scammers and they fixed the wires.”
The executive producer of the Real Housewives franchise advised others who may be contacted by fraudsters to take the time to make sure everything is as it should be.
“Some of my advice to people is that if something happens, just go to your bank branch.”
He added: ‘And if you receive emails, look very carefully at the email address. It might say the name of your bank, but when you click on the name, the email address pops up and you see it’s some other random address.”
Andy said he was “working on getting my money back.”