Maine City Accidentally Pays $18,000 to Email Scammer in Crazy Phishing Scam

We often find ourselves reporting about Maine residents who have fallen victim to online scammers.

But what if a whole municipality falls victim to a scam?

Well, that's exactly what happened to one Maine city.

According to a news article from WGME 13, the coastal city of Rockland, Maine, is now out a whopping $18,000 after a sophisticated email scam took place. And now, they're looking to write the expense off.

According to the news station, the city of Rockland had been working with Vortex Services LLC which had been doing some inspection work for the city. The city and Vortex had been corresponding via email about the ongoing projects.

However, a sophisticated phishing attempt from an unknown scammer proved successful (for the scammer) when they were able to hack into the city's email, get some information, and then begin posing as a rep from Vortex Services LLC, according to WGME.

Basically what happened is the scammer, posing as Vortex Services, told the city they were owed $18,000 for their services and directed them to make payment, according to WGME. Not realizing that they were interacting with a scammer, the city made the electronic payment of $18,000, the news station reported.

All told, the scammer ended up collecting $28,000 from the city of Rockland, according to WGME. Since it's highly unlikely that they'll be able to track or locate the specific scammer and get their money back, the city of Rockland is now looking to write off the damages.

Moving forward, the city of Rockland says that they will be enhancing their cyber security measures before they execute any more electronic fund transfers, according to the news station.