Andy Cohen Reveals He Was the Victim of Bank Fraud

Andy Cohen has revealed that he lost "a lot of money" after being targeted in a bank fraud scam. The Watch What Happens Live host revealed his experience being duped on a recent episode of his Daddy Diaries podcast.

"Someone called saying they were fraud alert from my bank," Cohen said. "I did lose a card, and I put in for it, and I got an email saying, 'There might be fraud on your account. And I was like, 'Oh, this is attached to the card I lost.'"

After entering his bank information, Cohen said that the website linked in the email asked for his Apple ID and password. "And I was like … 'OK, this never happens.' So I bailed," he explained. But he "had already logged into my bank app. I think somehow my logging in through whatever this site was gave them access to my bank app."

Then, when the scammers contacted him again pretending to be a fraud alert team, Cohen thought that they were legitimate representatives from his bank calling about the earlier hacking attempt — not realizing that the callers were actually behind the whole thing.

"They were naming credits that I had made, charges, because they clearly had access to my account," he said, adding that he was tricked into setting up call forwarding to the scammers.

"She was like, 'I need you to enter into your phone these numbers. I went to the keypad, and I entered a bunch of numbers that she told me to enter. And what came onto my screen was this screen that basically said I had set up call forwarding and message forwarding on my phone."

When he went to the bank the next day, Cohen discovered that "these people wired out of two accounts that I have a lot of money. Since I had set up call forwarding, the calls went to the scam artists, and they confirmed the wires."

"What I should have done is say, 'Can I call you back?' Or 'Can I go to the bank and handle this?' Cohen told his co-host. "Instead ... I stayed on the line with this woman for an hour and 10 minutes."

"Part of my advice for people is that if something is happening, just go to your bank branch," he concluded. "And when you get emails, look very closely at the email address. It might say your bank's name, but click on the name, and then the email address will appear, and you'll see that it's some other random address."

The story may not have a happy ending, but there's still hope for Cohen, who said he's currently "in the process of trying to get my money back."