Condé Nast falls for $8 million email scam

Little old ladies just merging onto the information superhighway aren't the only ones falling victim to email hoaxes. The venerable publishing house Condé Nast fell for a $8 million scam after just one e-mail, according to a complaint [PDF] filed in a Manhattan court March 30.

The complaint explains that Condé Nast received an invoice from the email account of Quad Graph, which sounds a lot like the magazine giant's printer, Quad/Graphics. The form told the company to direct future payments to the Quad Graph account. So Condé Nast filled it out and wired over $7,870,530.02 and $47,137.91 in November and December, respectively.

It wasn't until late last December that Condé Nast--which publishes The New Yorker, Vogue, GQ, and many other titles--was contacted by their actual printer, Quad/Graphics, who asked why they hadn't received any payments since November. Condé Nast then alerted authorities of a suspected scam.

It turns out that most of the $8 million is sitting in a BBVA account in Alvin, Texas, under the name of Andy Ray Surface, according to the complaint. The feds were able to freeze the money in January, pending the outcome of the court case. According to Forbes, Surface has a conviction in Texas for disorderly conduct.

The U.S. District Attorney, not Condé Nast, is listed as the plaintiff in the court case, and Surface hasn't yet been charged. The publishing house told a reporter for Wired, one of its magazines, that it would not comment on an ongoing investigation.

(The Condé Nast building in New York City: AP)