My bank phoned me on Tuesday morning asking me to approve a wire transfer to Kathryn Combs.
I didn’t think much of it at first. My Bank is very careful about fraud, so I get these calls multiple times a month. I didn’t recognize the name, but I wasn’t overly concerned; our bookkeeping office sends ACH payments routinely.
I emailed our bookkeeping office to check in, and they forwarded me an email from my wife with an invoice for $58,550 attached and a note asking them to take care of it immediately. That sounded strange, so I sent it to my wife and she said, “No, that wasn’t me!”
I examined the email closely and realized not only was it fraudulent, it was extremely sophisticated fraud. The thieves had clearly done their research!
They made their email address so similar to my wife’s, even my bookkeeper—who is extremely sharp-eyed and careful—believed it. Not only that, the email included a back-and-forth conversation between my wife and another senior staff member about the invoice, both using email addresses that could easily be mistaken for authentic. They even nailed the tone and content! It was exactly how they would communicate. And everything was so professional; there was nothing that made the invoice look “off.”
Thank G-d, the bank called to verify and we were able to stop the transfer from going out.
Once I breathed a sigh of relief, I realized we can all learn a tremendous lesson from my encounter.
The reality is that every single one of us is “impersonated” on a daily basis, and we need to discover who is the “real” me and who is the “impersonated” me. We are hacked, so we fall into a bad mood, or resort to anger, or give in to temptation. When we lose our cool with other drivers, or snap at a coworker, or eat that “almost kosher” sandwich, that is because we have been impersonated.
To discover the “real me” we need to recognize the hack, peel back the layers, and find the pure core, the good and loving essence.
The real me is the person who loves G-d, is kind and generous and friendly. The real me goes out of my way to help others and serve G-d. The real me goes to minyan even when it's hard, eats kosher even on vacation, and is respectful to my parents even after a challenging day at work.
So, have you been impersonated? Who is the real you?