{"id":221708,"date":"2026-05-28T09:03:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-28T13:03:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/28\/harpswell-loses-190k-to-cybersecurity-fraud\/"},"modified":"2026-05-28T09:30:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T13:30:13","slug":"harpswell-loses-190k-to-cybersecurity-fraud","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/28\/harpswell-loses-190k-to-cybersecurity-fraud\/","title":{"rendered":"Harpswell loses $190K to cybersecurity fraud"},"content":{"rendered":"

Harpswell loses $190K to cybersecurity fraud<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.bangordailynews.com\/2026\/05\/28\/midcoast\/midcoast-government\/harpswell-maine-cyber-fraud-scam-190k\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Publish Date: 2026-05-28 09:03:00<\/a><\/p>\n

Source Domain: www.bangordailynews.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Author: <\/a><\/p>\n

Using an unordered list, summarize the following article with between 4 and 8 key points. <\/p>\n

Make a gift in honor of the good that comes from BDN journalism in your hands, and help raise $60,000 this spring to support our reporting. Make a donation now.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The town of Harpswell has been targeted by a \u201ccybersecurity fraud incident\u201d in which town staff issued a large payment of nearly $190,000 to a scammer posing as a legitimate vendor, town officials have said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe town recently became the victim of a fraud scheme in which it received fraudulent payment instructions that were made to appear as if they came from a vendor, diverting $189,199 of municipal funds away from the intended recipient,\u201d Select Board Chair Kevin Johnson said during a board meeting on May 21.<\/p>\n

Upon discovering the fraud, the town took several \u201cimmediate\u201d steps, Johnson said, reading a statement signed by all three board members. Town officials reported the incident to local and federal authorities, who have opened an investigation. The town also notified its insurance carrier, legal counsel and auditing firm.<\/p>\n

The investigation is ongoing, Johnson said. \u201cThe town is fully cooperating with law enforcement and pursuing all available avenues for recovery.\u201d<\/p>\n

Harpswell staff are also reviewing and strengthening the town\u2019s \u201cinternal payment authorization and verification protocols\u201d to guard against similar schemes in the future, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs the matter involves an active law enforcement investigation, we\u2019re not in a position to provide additional details at this time,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cThe town will issue further public updates when circumstances permit.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Harpswell loses $190K to cybersecurity fraud https:\/\/www.bangordailynews.com\/2026\/05\/28\/midcoast\/midcoast-government\/harpswell-maine-cyber-fraud-scam-190k\/ Publish Date: 2026-05-28 09:03:00 Source Domain: www.bangordailynews.com Author:…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":221709,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/bdn-data.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2026\/01\/NerdWallet-Kimberly-Palmer-Calm-Financial-Stress-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[24],"class_list":["post-221708","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cybersecurity","tag-cybersecurity"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221708"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=221708"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221708\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":221710,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221708\/revisions\/221710"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/221709"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=221708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=221708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=221708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}