Cybersecurity breach in Warren County: Millions lost to scam

Source Domain: wnyt.com

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Warren County paid out $3.3M to scammers after fraudulent invoices were sent to the treasurer’s office.LAKE GEORGE, N.Y. (WNYT)- A criminal investigation is underway in Warren County focusing on the theft of millions of dollars of taxpayer money.Related: Lake George man guilty of defrauding investors out of $6 millionLocal leaders believed they were paying a legitimate company, but it turned out to be a scam. Two separate invoices were sent to the Warren County office building from a company they had done business with. These invoices, sent earlier in December, 10 days apart, requested a total of $3.3 million and were fraudulent. The county released the money by electronic transfer.“They look very legitimate. It’s a vendor they’ve done business with before, they’re on the books, they are supposed to be receiving money, and the entity will get an email saying we’ve changed our routing number, or banking number,” said Paul Tracey.Related: U.S. Attorney: Warren County resident defrauded out of $172K through crypto scamTracey, a cybersecurity expert and Warren County resident, explained that the industry refers to this type of crime as supply chain attacks, which have become common. “Generally there should be a policy in place to prevent this. So really 98% of these attacks can be avoided,” he said.Warren County taxpayer Jackson Donnelly expressed his concerns over the fraud. “At the end of the day I think a little forgiveness is always in order. I don’t think the pitchforks are necessarily the best path forward,” he said.Related: Investigators: Owner of Schenectady medical transport company stole nearly $2M from MedicaidTracey isn’t surprised someone was able to pull off the scam. He suggests the best course of action is never reply to an email and call the vendor directly. “This really goes as an example that if county can get hit like this, and they have substantially more resources than your small business, it should be an eye-opener to everyone that just because we’re in rural upstate New York, doesn’t mean we’re not targets for this kind of crime,” he said.
For Related Stories: Warren County Treasurer Warren County Fraud Cyber Scam