US prosecutors have charged a Lithuanian man with engaging in an email fraud scheme in which he bilked Attack.Phishing two US-based companies out of more than US $ 100 million by posing as Attack.Phishing an Asian hardware vendor . Evaldas Rimasauskas , 48 , was arrested late last week by Lithuanian authorities , Manhattan federal prosecutors said on Tuesday . Rimasauskas does not yet have legal counsel , a spokesman for the prosecutors said . The alleged scheme is an example of a growing type of fraud called “ business email compromise Attack.Phishing ” , in which fraudsters ask for money using emails targeted at companies that work with foreign suppliers or regularly make wire transfers . It is a variation on the common “phishing” scam Attack.Phishing , but on a massive scale . The FBI said last June that since October 2013 , US and foreign victims have made 22,143 complaints about business email compromise scams Attack.Phishing involving requests for almost US $ 3.1 billion in transfers . In an indictment unsealed on Tuesday , prosecutors said that to carry out his scheme , which they said began around 2013 or earlier , Rimasauskas registered a company in Latvia with the same name as an Asian computer hardware manufacturer . He then sent Attack.Phishing emails to employees of the two unnamed victim companies , described as Attack.Phishing multinational internet firms , asking them to wire money that they actually owed to the Asian company to the sham Latvian company ’ s accounts , prosecutors said . The victim companies are described as Attack.Phishing a multinational technology company and a multinational social media company . After they wired money to Rimasauskas ’ s Latvian company , Rimasauskas quickly transferred the funds to different accounts around the world , including in Latvia , Cyprus , Slovakia , Lithuania , Hungary and Hong Kong , prosecutors said . In order to conceal his fraud from banks that handled the transfers , Rimasauskas forged Attack.Phishing invoices , contracts and letters purportedly signed by executives at the two victim companies , according to prosecutors . Rimasauskas is charged with wire fraud and money laundering , which each carry a maximum prison sentence of 20 years , and identify theft , which carries a mandatory minimum sentence of two years . Acting US Attorney Joon H. Kim said : “ From half a world away , Evaldas Rimasauskas allegedly targeted multinational internet companies and tricked Attack.Phishing their agents and employees into wiring over US $ 100 million to overseas bank accounts under his control . “ This case should serve as a wake-up call to all companies – even the most sophisticated – that they too can be victims of phishing attacks Attack.Phishing by cyber criminals . ”