PETERBOROUGH, NH – The small town of Peterborough, New Hampshire is a Charming New England Town located next to Mount Monadnock, it is one of the most beautiful places in New England. Unfortunately, Cyber Thieves made off with at least $2.3 million in July and August by using the age-old proven hacking method “Phishing.”
The Cyber Criminals forged email accounts pretending to be officials from either the school district or contractors from the bridge project. They then communicated with the town staff to receive the payments
On August 18th, the Finance Department staff learned that two bank transfers meant to go the general contractor working on the Main Street Bridge project, had also been fraudulently diverted to thieves through similar means.
According to the Press Release The “Finance Department staff immediately put a stop payment order on the transfer, however the funds had already left the Town’s” Bank Account. .
The IT Department staff followed the protocol for alerting the U.S. Secret Service and the Town’s property and liability coverage provider. But, the Secret Service was unable to do much after the transfers went completed…
No Funds have been recovered by the Secret Service. The U.S. Secret Service Cyber Security Fraud Task Force continues to diligently work through the recovery process and investigate the case.
Though it is now believed that no town staff were criminally involved in the transfers, the Finance Department staff who were directly targeted in this fraud are on leave until the U.S. Secret Service’s ongoing investigation has been concluded.
The Town is now now waiting to hear from their coverage provider to find out if these losses will be covered.
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