A chic Greenwich Village restaurant was forced to close its doors after a $45,000 payday cybercam — and now its co-owner is warning other businesses to be on the lookout.
Gotham Restaurant co-owner Bret Csencsitz said they made the difficult choice to temporarily close after he was tricked into sending money to a “sneaky actor.”
“We just couldn’t keep up with our payroll, we didn’t have enough money, so we’re stopping,” he told The Post in a recent interview.
The saga began for the upscale restaurant on May 10, a Friday, when a thief claiming to work for a company Gotham uses to manage payroll emailed Csencsitz and his human resources staff to say that the firm was changing bank information due to “internal matters. “
The HR employee contacted Csencsitz to look into the request. They looked for past emails and it appeared to be from the employee they usually talk to from the payroll company.
“And then I linked the money to this new account with the company name and their address,” he said. “Not a few hours later we realize that something seems a little strange.”
The scammer had copied the email format that usually comes from the email provider, but upon closer inspection — which came too late — the email address had an extra K in the URL, he said.
“We fell victim to someone who was able to inject themselves into an ongoing dialogue between us and a payroll company,” Csencsitz said.
“When you look at it, you wouldn’t normally notice it,” he added. “But eventually, when we were really digging into why this was happening, we found the difference.”
He contacted his bank, but so far, the financial institution has not recovered the money. He is surprised banks don’t do more to protect their customers’ money. he said.
Gotham, which offers New American cuisine, does not have a cyber insurance policy, which would cost $5,000 a year.
He has filed a report with the FBI and is in contact with the agency.
With the loss of money and a noticeable drop in customers expected between June and August, when people are away, Csencsitz made the “challenging” choice earlier this month to close for several months.
It sent a message to employees informing them of the temporary closure earlier this month, according to Eater NY, which first reported the conundrum.
“Please know that this was a difficult decision and it was not taken lightly. Business levels and a recent cyber fraud incident that resulted in a large loss made it necessary for us to halt operations to consider our options,” Csencsitz told workers.
“Please know that I am deeply grateful to each and every employee and I am sorry for any inconvenience this may cause. I hope everyone will consider reuniting with Gotham at the end of the summer.”
The restaurant, which is celebrating its 40th year in business and was formerly known as Gotham Bar and Grill, has faced uphill battles before.
It was closed for nearly two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and when it reopened, with Csencsitz as the new owner after he was general manager, the restaurant struggled to attract enough staff.
But Csencsitz is not deterred by the latest hurdle.
“We plan to fully reopen. We have committed capital, we haven’t received it yet, but we will. We have very strong commitments and we will tweak a few things and come back with a new location and a slightly modified dining room,” he said.
His warning to other restaurants is to get cyber insurance and “you can’t verify enough.”
“Don’t trust any change in bank information,” he advised. “I would be very skeptical about this at first and verify it with multiple tools.”