West Union loses over $60K to email scam

[cigaretteman]

For the second time this year, an Eastern Iowa government said it was scammed out of thousands of dollars after cybercriminals hacked email accounts.



The city of West Union, in Northeast Iowa’s Fayette County, paid more than $60,000 to scammers who during the week of April 22 sent the city an email with an invoice that purported to be from a legitimate vendor. A city news release about the scam didn’t say exactly how much was lost.


“The city has reported this scam to its insurance company and is hopeful to recover some of these funds through an insurance claim. The city is also looking into the timeline of events, its processes and procedures for payment of vendor invoices submitted by email, and will report out as soon as we have more information on those issues as well as the insurance claims,” the release said.




The city is also working with an information technology vendor to ensure that its email system and software have not been compromised.


The theft comes just a few months after Dubuque County was targeted by a similar scam, and paid $524,284.


The scammers compromised the city of Dyersville’s email system and used a city email to request funds the city was owed from the county through the federal American Rescue Plan Act.


The Dubuque County auditor and sheriff learned the money was missing when Dyersville officials asked about the status of the transfer after the county had already sent it.

West Union loses more than $60K to email scam

For the second time this year, an Eastern Iowa government said it was scammed out of thousands of dollars after cybercriminals hacked email accounts.

www.thegazette.com

 

[Hawki97]

Maybe put qualified folks and decent controls in your accounts payable dept. Nevermind, just extort money from the citizenry via speed cameras and just cover it. Easy peasy.

 

[VodkaSam]

Maybe put qualified folks and decent controls in your accounts payable dept. Nevermind, just extort money from the citizenry via speed cameras and just cover it. Easy peasy.

We just sold a condo at Lake of the Ozarks, and during close, we weren’t able to provide wire transfer instructions in person. As a result, title company mailed us our proceeds overnight via check. They won’t take wire instructions from anyone via email or over the phone, due to the ability of scammers to duplicate wire instructions almost perfectly, and even coming from fake emails that “almost” match yours perfectly. Our title agent said several title companies at the lake had been scammed recently, or attempts made by scammers.

 

[cheeselog8]

I gotta say that these scammers are targeting a very susceptible sector here. I used to audit cities and counties and let's just say they don't hire the best and the brightest yet they have access to substantial funds. And while they may have certain controls in place, they can easily become complacent in actually following those controls.

 

[Hawki97]

We just sold a condo at Lake of the Ozarks, and during close, we weren’t able to provide wire transfer instructions in person. As a result, title company mailed us our proceeds overnight via check. They won’t take wire instructions from anyone via email or over the phone, due to the ability of scammers to duplicate wire instructions almost perfectly, and even coming from fake emails that “almost” match yours perfectly. Our title agent said several title companies at the lake had been scammed recently, or attempts made by scammers.

Scammers are very good at what they do. Basic internal controls (with a strong focus on vendor verification) in an accounts payable department goes a longggg way to addressing the issue. People are - as always - the weakest link.

 

[Hawki97]

I gotta say that these scammers are targeting a very susceptible sector here. I used to audit cities and counties and let's just say they don't hire the best and the brightest yet they have access to substantial funds. And while they may have certain controls in place, they can easily become complacent in actually following those controls.

The highlighted....

It's easy money.

 

[joelbc1]

We just sold a condo at Lake of the Ozarks, and during close, we weren’t able to provide wire transfer instructions in person. As a result, title company mailed us our proceeds overnight via check. They won’t take wire instructions from anyone via email or over the phone, due to the ability of scammers to duplicate wire instructions almost perfectly, and even coming from fake emails that “almost” match yours perfectly. Our title agent said several title companies at the lake had been scammed recently, or attempts made by scammers.

E-0Scammers and AI provide state’s trouble aplenty….but out Legislature is too busy to look at these schemes, until it is too late. Don’t want “the gubmint” to be too big, you know….

 

[Colonoscopy]

Maybe put qualified folks and decent controls in your accounts payable dept. Nevermind, just extort money from the citizenry via speed cameras and just cover it. Easy peasy.

Small towns dude. Totally king of the retards scenarios. Scammers know what they're doing.

 

[joelbc1]

Small towns dude. Totally king of the retards scenarios. Scammers know what they're doing.

They need to install a couple of speed cams now to recoup their losses!

 

[Colonoscopy]

They need to install a couple of speed cams now to recoup their losses!

This wasn't a ban robbery, they won't spot the getaway vehicle.

Welcome to the 21st century.