Business mogul Richard Branson explained a recent blog post in which he detailed being nearly conned out of $5 million. “I got a call from the minister of defense in England, who I know. And he sounded like the minister of defense. And he said that a British diplomat had been kidnapped, and they were not legally allowed — the government wasn’t allowed to put up the money. And they said they needed $5 million from me.”
Luckily, Branson did a little investigating before writing a check and realized it was a scam.
Unfortunately, one of Branson’s wealthy friends was not so lucky. Branson said that someone called a businessman friend of Branson’s pretending to be him, saying he was stuck in the British Virgin Islands and wanted $2 million to help the people of the BVI, and could the friend give “Branson” the $2 million.
The businessman, whom Brandon declined to identify, told him that someone impersonating Branson called him and said he was trying to quickly get access to money to help the British Virgin Islands in the wake of the devastation from Hurricane Irma.
The person claimed that Branson, who has a home on Necker Island in the BVI, couldn't get through to his bank because of the destruction from the storm so he was making a satellite call to this businessman, who is Branson's friend. The businessman gave the impostor $2 million, which subsequently disappeared.
The businessman later asked Branson to reimburse him for the money. It turns out that Branson’s friend may have been duped by the same con man who put on a posh British accent in the earlier case.
Branson summed up his experience, “I think what this says is that, you know, we can afford — businessmen can afford maybe to lose $2 million. But there are millions of people being conned every day now. I mean, it’s frightening.”
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