Cops: $710,000 recovered after scam hits Nassau comptroller's office
Nassau County has recovered $710,000 paid out of the comptroller's office to scammers pretending to be a county vendor, Nassau police announced Friday.
The recovery of the taxpayer funds was a joint effort involving financial crimes police, Nassau County district attorney investigators, the comptroller's office and the county treasurer, Nassau Police Commissioner Patrick Ryder said at a news conference.
“Many times we talk about the scams on our elderly, how they can get fooled, but government can become a victim too,” Ryder said. “If it weren’t for the coordinated effort and initial contact from the comptroller’s office, the money may not have been recovered because it moves quickly.”
Comptroller officials contacted police on Oct. 25 to report that they had been targeted by an organization pretending to be an existing county vendor, Ryder said.
The supposed vendor said they were due payment to a new account, Ryder said. The scammers filled out all the necessary paperwork designed to prevent theft and offered a fraudulent check as evidence of the new account, Ryder said.
Police said the money was redirected to an elderly woman’s account in Seattle and then redirected to several different accounts, which were identified and frozen by investigators to seize the funds.
Nassau County Comptroller Jack Schnirman said controls in place at the comptroller's office immediately identified the fraudulent activity, leading the funds to be frozen. He said additional security controls had been added since the attack.
“In the digital age, cyberattacks target municipalities throughout the country, costing taxpayers and residents millions of dollars," Schnirman said. "This malicious attempted cybercrime was thwarted, and taxpayers were protected due to the efforts of this coordinated investigation."
No arrests have been made. Police said they had identified three other municipalities, which were not named, that also were targeted.
“We’re hoping to make some arrests down the road and identify those who pulled our taxpayer dollars and moved them somewhere else,” Ryder said.
Police said the phishing scheme targeted as many entities as possible around the country hoping for someone to fall prey to the plot.
The comptroller's office received an email from a fictitious corporation, designed to look like the original vendor, but with different bank information, Ryder said.
Police have not determined if the culprits behind the attack are part of a local or international plot. The woman in Seattle also was considered a victim and had no knowledge her account was being used to divert funds, Ryder said.
Other cyberattacks have targeted school districts in Lynbrook, Mineola and Rockville Centre, where Rockville Centre school officials paid nearly $100,000 after their server was hacked and locked behind a ransomware virus.
Police have not listed any connection between the cyberattacks on the school districts and the comptroller's office.
Nassau Republican majority legislators said they were not informed of the cyberattack.
“The Legislature received no notice of this until the press conference," Republican majority spokesman Chris Boyle said. "The Comptroller is charged with keeping an eye on county finances. That this happened to our ’fiscal watchdog’ is deeply concerning and we have many questions that must be answered.”
Schnirman said police asked the comptroller's office not to disclose the attack during the investigation.
John Asbury is a breaking news and general assignment reporter. He has been with Newsday since 2014 and previously worked at The Press-Enterprise in Riverside, California.
