Town of Franklin loses over $500K to ‘phishing’ scam

Officials in Franklin have announced that the town has been the victim of a phishing scam in which over half a million dollars of town money was sent to the scammers.The scam was part of “a recent ‘spear-phishing attack,’” Town Administrator Jamie Hellen said in a news release. A total of $522,000 “was misdirected to a third party.”

Phishing scams typically involve an email expertly tailored by scammers to look like it’s coming from a trustworthy source, but that redirects the recipient to a bogus website, according to Kapersky, the cybersecurity firm.

Town police are currently working with state and federal officials on a criminal investigation, and the town has also hired an attorney to work on this, according to the release.

The town’s data is secure, the release said, and the scam didn’t include a security breach.

“I also wish to note that this incident has not affected the Town’s general fund,” Hellen said in the release. “It occurred in connection with a non-general fund account. The Town is implementing new procedures and protocols to limit future incidents of this type and urges all to guard against increased fraud.”

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