In a suburb outside of Austin, taxpayers just lost millions of their hard-earned dollars after school district officials fell for an email phishing scam.
Officials in Manor Independent School District are working with local police and even the FBI to track down approximately $2.3 million that was transferred to a fraudulent bank account.
Police said the scam began in early November and continued through December before the district realized what was happening. The phishing email—a scam designed to gain access to information—was sent to multiple people at the district, but only one person responded.
“It was three separate transactions. Unfortunately, they didn’t recognize the fact that the bank account information had been changed, and they sent three separate transactions over the course of a month before it was recognized that it was fraudulent bank account,” said Anne Lopez, a detective with Manor police.
Police did not provide further details of how the phishing scam occurred or if the district will be able to recover the money.
“Obviously, some system wasn’t in place,” said Halion Abramovitch with Live Oak IT.
The school district said in a press release that the investigation is still ongoing and that the police have “strong leads in the case.”
