The email came into his inbox on February 9, ending in usps.gov - an ending which made the lawyer believe it was a genuine communication from the US Postal Service. He clicked on an attachment in the email. A few hours later when he tried to get into his law firm's account at the Pacific Premier Bank, he was asked to enter his PIN in a procedure that was different to the normal login. He then received a call from someone claiming to be from the bank. 

Fake bank employee

The person who claimed to be an employee of the bank appeared to be trying to help and said that the lawyer appeared to be having troubles getting access. The fake employee asked the lawyer to enter his PIN again and then to enter another number (which then turned out to be a wire transfer code). A page then came up saying the site was shut for maintenance.

Locked out of account

The lawyer became suspicious two days later when a second person called, claiming to be another bank employee and asking for more details. When this 'employee' said that the lawyer was locked out of his account for the next day, the lawyer realised that something odd was happening. He then discovered that the $289,000 had been transferred. It appears that the hackers installed a virus through the email attachment and were then able to copy the lawyer's key strokes. Pacific Premier is refusing to refund the lawyer who said: 'I never thought it would happen to me. I was shocked. I felt like a dummy, basically.' Source: ABA