How a scammer made off with $459,000 from a Worcester pot shop owner

ABINGTON – After losing more than $459,000 to a scammer who hacked his email and pretended to be a contractor, a Worcester and Abington pot shop owner is suing the bank he says made it all possible.

Bud's Goods & Provisions, owned by Alex Mazin of Worcester first filed the lawsuit in March 2021 in state court naming scam suspect Lam Yan Wun Merton. Mazin added HSBC Bank to the lawsuit in September and the lawsuit has since been moved to federal court.

In the lawsuit, attorney Peter Duffy said HSBC Bank should have known that the account used by the hacker, opened for personal use, was being used to transfer stolen money.

Documents received from the bank by Duffy show that between July 2020 and March 2021, there were 20 transfers of over $10,000 into Merton's account that were transferred the same day they were each received at Silvergate Bank. Silvergate says it specializes in cryptocurrency, which is anonymous and untraceable.

Duffy said in the lawsuit that "multiple other parties" in Texas and British Columbia had their email accounts hacked and were tricked into sending wires to Merton's account for invoices that needed to be paid.

"Despite being made aware of these facts, (HSBC Bank) refused to take steps to prevent damage to Bud’s and others similarly situated," Duffy said in the lawsuit.

Bud's Goods sues HSCB: Read the lawsuit complaint against HSBC Bank

Mazin, who immigrated to the United States from the former Soviet Union in 1990, grew up in Worcester. He runs cannabis businesses at 64 West Boylston St. in Worcester and at 1540 Bedford St. in Abington.

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Mazin and his company are suing HSBC for conversion for the theft of the money, negligence, gross negligence, recklessness, wanton and willful disregard of harm and aiding and abetting fraud.

He is seeking damages, restitution of the money that was stolen and attorney's fees.

Duffy said in the lawsuit that an unknown person, referred to as "John Doe," hacked and monitored Mazin's email account and set up a false email address that was almost the same as the email address used by the contractor doing work at his Abington shop in 2020.

The contractor sent Mazin a legitimate invoice on Dec. 16, 2020, for $459,153 worth of work at the shop. Two days later, Mazin emailed the contractor asking for instructions on how to wire him payment. The unknown man working for Merton sent an email to Mazin less than an hour later under the false email address with wiring instructions for Merton's account, Duffy said in the lawsuit.

Two days later, the contractor sent Mazin instructions for a legitimate wire transfer but the hacker deleted it, Duffy said in the lawsuit.

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Mazin sent another email, asking the contractor if he could pay by check, and the hacker responded with the same wiring instructions. Then Mazin sent the wire, which included a note that it was for the invoice for the construction project, Duffy said in the lawsuit.

"HSBC Bank knew or should have known that the construction project referenced in the sender bank correspondence was not reasonably associated with the personal account of Merton, a resident of Hong Kong, particularly against the high volume of other suspicious transactions," Duffy said in the lawsuit

Neither Mazin nor Duffy returned requests for comment. A HSBC Bank spokesman said the company has no comment. It has until Jan. 27 to file an answer to the complaint in court.

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Reach reporter Wheeler Cowperthwaite at wcowperthwaite@patriotledger.com.

This article originally appeared on The Patriot Ledger: Abington pot shop sues HSBC Bank after losing $459k to oversea scammer