Stars count the cost as hackers hit Loulou’s club
IT PRIDES itself on being London’s most exclusive club and counts Hollywood royalty, rock stars, billionaire tycoons and supermodels among its members.
But some of the great and the good who relax at Mayfair’s plush 5 Hertford Street – home to legendary basement nightclub Loulou’s – are now counting the cost after being targeted by computer hackers.
The private members’ venue in Mayfair, owned by nightclub tycoon Robin Birley, was attacked by cyber criminals last week and now Scotland Yard has been called in to investigate the so-called ‘phishing’ scam.
After infiltrating the computer system, the scammers then emailed members in a bid to elicit their credit card details.
Hackers are believed to have used the iCloud account of staff member Lewis Wilkinson to gain access to the mailing list, and then posed as another staff member called Ileana from the accounts department to send emails saying: ‘Please see attached invoice… Please confirm the amount and respond, or we will proceed to debit the credit card details we have on file.’
The club’s membership list is closely guarded, but George and Amal Clooney, Sir Mick Jagger and Sir Richard Branson are all reportedly members, and I have twice spotted Leonardo DiCaprio on its famously opulent smoking patio.
Financier Ben Goldsmith sits on the committee but he told me he did not fall for the scam, and instead deleted the message straight away. However, several club members did reply to the phishing email, which used a real club document for authenticity.
Those who fell for the ruse provided hackers with their club membership password, which in turn led the criminals to the payment details saved on the computer system. When members rang the club to complain about being targeted by the hackers, officials admitted that data had been stolen and advised deleting the messages immediately. One member told me that he found the incident ‘deeply concerning’, adding: ‘Given the number of high-net-worth individuals who could now be taken to the cleaners, the hackers couldn’t have picked a better target. ‘This isn’t some working men’s club – it’s a place for billionaires and megastars.’ Another source tells me: ‘Most of the younger members saw right through it, but the average age at Hertford Street is high and many of the older people were fooled.’ 5 Hertford Street favours aristocratic clients over fleeting pop stars. It costs £1,200 to join the club and the annual membership fee is £1,500, but despite the high cost there are 3,000 names on the waiting list. The club made a profit of more than £100,000 last year. A club spokesman said last night: ‘As soon as we were made aware of these attacks, we spoke with our providers and cyber-security team to carry out additional security checks of all our systems.’