How Andy Cohen Fell Victim To A Major Bank Fraud Scam

Andy Cohen is known for getting the inside scoop on his hit talk show "Watch What Happens Live!" We love the Bravo icon, who also co-hosts the podcast "Daddy Diaries," because he isn't afraid to delve into celebrities' personal lives and usually knows just how far he can push things. But recently, the tables were turned when hackers were able to secure some private details about Cohen, and unfortunately, the sophisticated scammers who went after his money didn't have the same understanding of boundaries.

On a December 2023 episode of his podcast, Cohen recalled to his co-host, John Hill, how he lost quite a bit of money alongside some private data to scammers to whom he willingly (yet unknowingly) gave his information. However, to the TV star's credit, the thieves employed some very deceptive tactics. Cohen explained how he misplaced one of his bank cards, so naturally, he thought nothing of it when a fraud alert email from his financial institution arrived in his inbox.

Following the instructions given by the thieves, he logged into his email, noting it was a little odd when they wanted his Apple ID too, "so I bailed out." Unfortunately, that may have been all the fraudsters needed to obtain data on his bank app and ultimately secure an untold sum of money from Cohen too.

After getting partway through the scam artists' emailed instructions and backing out, Andy Cohen might have thought he was in the clear until a call, which he presumed was from his bank, came through. "They were naming credits I had made — charges — because they clearly had access to my account," he revealed on "Daddy Diaries." In all, he talked to the fake bank staff member for over an hour. During that time, the Bravo star was even convinced to activate call and message forwarding, successfully preventing his real bank from contacting him.

When phone calls from his actual financial institution were forwarded to the scam artists, they confirmed the false transactions. As Cohen regretfully acknowledged, "These people wired, out of two accounts that I have, a lot of money." At the time of the episode, the podcast host had yet to get his accounts back in order and wasn't successful in retrieving all of his money either. He urged fans, "If you feel something is happening, just go to your bank branch," and encouraged them to screen the details, like the web address, before blindly clicking anything.

Sadly, online thieves can sometimes get away cleanly with all of a person's funds, and not every bank reimburses their members for lost finances even if they were stolen as part of an extremely sophisticated scheme, like the one used on Cohen.

Andy Cohen didn't divulge just how much money the fraudsters were able to transfer out of his bank account, but it could have been in the millions. The beloved celeb is the host and executive producer of "Watch What Happens Live! With Andy Cohen" while also executive producing "The Real Housewives," a huge franchise in and of itself. On top of that, he has taken his hosting duties to the podcast space, dishing on "Radio Andy" and "The Daddy Diaries." And, how could we forget that the multi-hyphenate has also written over five books while also somehow finding the time to host various specials, like CNN's "New Year's Eve Live" event?

The income from all those positions certainly seems like it would add up — and it has. Celebrity Net Worth estimates that Cohen is worth a whopping $50 million and earns around $10 million yearly, largely from Bravo, which he has been with since 2004. All of which is to say that access to the two bank accounts obtained by the scammers could have yielded them quite a bit of money.

In January 2024, Cohen appeared on "TODAY" to discuss the whole debacle, stating, "When money is wired out of your account, it's gone. This is an active case with the NYPD Cyber Security Unit. It's very easy to fall prey to," again, not disclosing exactly how much he lost. Still, we cringe at the fact that it could easily have been hundreds of thousands of dollars that is now simply lost.