Posted on 08/31/2017 2:40:04 PM PDT by Red Badger
A Canadian university says staffers unwittingly lost $9.5m (C$11.8m; £7.5m) in an online phishing scam.
Fraudulent emails convinced staff at MacEwan University that one of its clients was changing its bank account details. Staff then paid money into the fraudulently created account.
The university, in Edmonton, Alberta, is auditing its business practices.
Police have traced most of the funds to accounts in Hong Kong and Montreal, but no charges have been laid.
The scam came to light when the real client complained of non-payment.
"There is never a good time for something like this to happen," university spokesperson David Beharry said in a statement.
"As our students come back to start the new academic year, we want to assure them and the community that our IT systems were not compromised during this incident."
What is phishing?
Phishing is a common type of internet fraud where scammers send emails that appear to be from a reputable company, enticing people to give up personal information.
Mr Beharry also said the university was working to ensure that this fraud would not impact future educational or business operations.
An internal revue is expected to make recommendations on ways the school can prevent this from happening again.
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.com ...
Eh??
Naive country bumpkins, those Canadians. Hey, they elected a ski instructor PM ‘cause they liked his last name then fawned over him because he parroted an answer about quantum computing he just learnt in a museum.
I am guessing enrollment in their IT classes will take a hit
MacEwen is a community college that changed its name.
Calling it a “university” is like calling Wednesday Bible study “church”.
The city of El Paso, TX was scammed by phishing too. I have heard it happens often, but people are not always told about it. Truly amazes me, when I worked in an office if we had a question we picked up the phone and called someone to verify things. Seems now people just say oh well something has changed and go on without checking things out.
http://www.kvia.com/crime/source-citys-streetcar-project-allegedly-scammed/140214834
Wonder if they helped any Nigerian princes too?
LOL!...................
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