Blue Cross of MN Actually Got Fooled by Nigerian Scammers

Are we really still falling for scammers from Nigeria? Apparently.

This isn't meant to single-out Nigerians. The fact that most of us in the 90s received an urgent email from a 'Nigerian prince' about needing to send him money so he can send US a lot more money is forever ingrained into my oddly-smooth brain. So when a scam happens and Nigerians are involved, I default to, "Was it that prince again? He owes me $3,000,000!"

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota Falls For Nigerian Fraud Scheme

From October of 2020 to this year, the nationals managed to fool employees of a few Minnesota companies into wiring money to them. The nationals had created a spoofed website that looked like it was controlled by Fairview Health Services (a legit Minneapolis-based company) as well as spoofing email accounts of Fairview's CEO, a business analyst, and general counsel.

The scam raked in almost $8 million from Blue Cross of Minnesota, while nonprofits in Minneapolis and Bloomington were also phished.

In a prepared statement, the company says, "Blue Cross was able to recoup most of the funds involved in this case and has taken additional measures to further strengthen our protections against deceptive financial practices".

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota employs approximately 3,000 folks and is the 3rd-largest nonprofit group in Minnesota. Fairview Health Services employs about 34,000 and is the 4th-largest nonprofit group in Minnesota.

For those wondering, the largest nonprofit group in Minnesota is the Mayo Clinic.

The 3rd-largest nonprofit in Minnesota getting phished by the modern-day version of Nigerian princes? That's today's Sign of the Apocalypse.

...you're joking, right? RIGHT?! (Photo by OSPAN ALI/Karsten Winegeart on Unsplash/Canva)