14 Sep Eagle Mountain Utah Residents Heavily Affected By A Million Dollar Cyber Scam
Eagle Mountain recently lost over $1.13 million to organized cybercrime, municipal officials reported on Monday.
“This crime was conducted through an email impersonation,” Eagle Mountain officials stated. “The individual(s) involved were able to depict themselves as a representative of a vendor working closely with the city on a significant infrastructure project.”
The event occurred on August 31. According to a local statement, the city subsequently took “prompt action” and informed the FBI, the Utah County Sheriff’s Office, and the vendor.
The city employees who were engaged in the event have been cooperative with investigators.
“Further investigation revealed that the stolen funds were transferred via an Automated Clearing House transfer. “Eagle Mountain has spent substantial effort tightening its financial practices involving ACH payments since learning of the occurrence,” city officials noted.
According to Tyler Maffitt, a spokesman for the city, the funds were moved in a single transaction.
“It appears someone with intimate knowledge of the issue, either through hacking or some other technique, was able to put themselves in an ongoing email thread to pretend as a representative of the vendor,” Maffitt said when asked how such a big sum was lost. This enabled them to persuade our municipal personnel to move the funds to an account that did not belong to the genuine vendor.”
According to the statement, Eagle Mountain previously obtained insurance for cyber crimes and attacks, and the city is negotiating with the insurance provider to be compensated. Maffitt stated that the city is “certain” it will be compensated for the stolen funds.
“The city wishes to reassure residents, clients, and vendors that no personal information was exposed as a consequence of this incident. Those impacted will continue to cooperate with detectives until the matter is resolved. At this moment, no city or vendor workers are being investigated for misconduct. According to city authorities.
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