Puerto Rico Falls For Phishing Email, Losing Millions Of Taxpayer Funds
Puerto Rico, the unincorporated U.S. island that is home to over three million Americans, accidentally sent $2.6 million to cyber-criminals in January after government employees were tricked by a scam email claiming that someone had authorized changes to a government bank account.
According to the Associated Press, Ruben Rivera, the finance director of the government-owned Industrial Development Company, filed a police report Wednesday alleging that the agency mistakenly initiated the transfer almost a month ago.
According to Info Security Magazine, “the email falsely claimed that the existing bank account used for remittance payments should no longer be used for this purpose and informed the agency that the money should be sent to a new bank account. It was this new account that turned out to be fraudulent and in the control of cyber-criminals.”
https://www.dailywire.com/news/puerto-rico-falls-for-phishing-email-losing-millions-of-taxpayer-funds