Far-right Project Veritas claims it was defrauded of $165,000 by hoaxsters

Project Veritas, the far-right group known for its "gotcha" attacks on everyone from Planned Parenthood to National Public Radio, was recently the target of online hackers — who, according to founder James O'Keefe, defrauded the group of $165,000.

O'Keefe, in an announcement on Monday, said that hackers posing as attorneys for Project Veritas convinced employees to transfer funds out of its bank account.

"So, we received an invoice for $165,000 from a few of our attorneys, and we intended to pay that invoice; so, we set up wire transfers for payment," explained O'Keefe, who founded Veritas in 2010. "Within an hour, the lawyers reached out to us, asking us to pay the invoice via a new account they had set up."

According to O'Keefe, the hackers appeared to be monitoring his correspondence with real Veritas attorneys.

O'Keefe announced, "They actually impersonated the actual name of our lawyer, changing a few letters in the e-mail address, replying in real-time to an e-mail chain with our actual attorneys. It appears the fraudsters were watching, waiting for an invoice to be sent to us and then pounced — impersonating them, replying to a real e-mail as the lawyer's name the moment the invoice came."