The Manor (Texas) Independent School District has lost $2.3 million after being victimized by a phishing scam.
KVUE-TV reports that a phishing email was sent to multiple people at the school district in November, and it was a single person that responded.
The phishing continued through December before the district found out and reported it.
“It was three separate transactions,” says Anne Lopez, a Manor police detective. “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.”
Manor Police and the FBI are investigating.
School leaders say there are "strong leads" in the case.
A 2019 study by the Better Business Bureau found that business email scams have cost businesses more than $3 billion since 2016.
Erin Dunfer, the chief marketing officer with the Better Business Bureau, says one clue that an email may be a scam is the grammar. Misspellings are a red flag.
"Really nobody is immune – not a school district, not any kind of a bank is immune to any kind of email phishing or identity theft scams, so it is up to all of us to be prudent to look at tall of the details," says Dufner. "People are still providing even a little piece of personal information. Somebody can take that and find out additional information."
