A well - heeled Seattle suburban area town with a median family income of $ 203,393 cut down prey to blatantly obvious phishing scam .
harmonize to areport from the Seattle Times , Yarrow Point ’s now - former fiscal coordinator ( who had a personal equipment driver ) did not question emails from someone claiming to be the mayor asking him to wire thousands of dollar to a New York bank accounting .
Last August , Yarrow Point ’s fiscal coordinator , John Joplin , reportedly receive an e-mail from “ Mayor Richard Cahill , ” using the email account[email protect ] , asking if Joplin was at the power .
In a brief exchange , the chiseller posing as the mayor asked Joplin to wire him $ 14,624 to a New York - establish Bank of America account belong to someone named Adebayo Mabel , the Seattle Times describe . Joplin follow the orders , even though he receive two message from Yarrow Point ’s bank , Banner Bank , alerting him of a “ forgot word attempt , ” as well as an alert about “ a wire transfer ” being created , suggest it could be due to “ fallacious activeness , ” documents show .
Joplin did not interrogate the postulation , even though — as the veridical city manager , Richard Cahill , subsequently told the Seattle Times — the town had never perform a conducting wire transportation before .
A few twenty-four hours later , on the day of the full solar eclipse , Joplin get another electronic mail from the “ city manager , ” asking if Joplin was in the office that twenty-four hour period .
“ I am working at dwelling today as my driver wanted to stay home for the occultation , ” Joplin responded , accord to an e-mail exchange hold by the Seattle Times .
“ I need you to manage a conducting wire transference for me today , ” the “ mayor ” replied . “ Can I institutionalize you the particular now ? ”
The grifter sitting as a mayor then asked Joplin to wire him $ 14,624 again . But this time the wiring instructions request a unlike amount—$34,624 . Joplin responded asking which was the correct amount , then after wired the gamy requital .
The next day the emboldened chiseler involve for $ 64,624 , but by then Joplin had wised up to the cozenage .
But that was n’t the end of the town ’s cybersecurity problems . On October 18th , townsfolk employee lose accession to sure filing cabinet and system when the city was targeted in a ransomware attack . The town paid the hackers $ 9,170 in bitcoin .
Yarrow Point then engage three cybersecurity bureau to aid with the issue , collectively be the townsfolk $ 46,972.21 , fit in to the Seattle Times . The ransomeware payment was covered by the town ’s policy , but the $ 49,248 lost in the phishing scam was not .
The township finally alert its manse on October 26th of a “ cyber incident that made certain file and systems inaccessible . ”
Months earlier , Yarrow point in time salesclerk and treasurer Anastasiya Warhol had been station like phishing emails but was able to determine that the messages were illegitimate and shared them with the town ’s IT caller and Mayor Cahill .
The Yarrow Point municipality did not respond to a Gizmodo request for comment on the scams . Cahill told the Seattle Times he recently give ear a protection workshop and the town ’s administrative authority take on a refresher row on safe security practices . After working for the Ithiel Town for 12 eld , Joplin is no longer employed by Yarrow Point .
[ Seattle Times ]
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