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Phishing scam costs school district $2.3M, FBI and police are investigating

Posted at 5:10 PM, Jan 12, 2020
and last updated 2020-01-12 19:10:58-05

A school district in Manor, Texas, was caught in a phishing email scam that cost $2.3 million in losses within two months, officials said.

Investigators with the Manor Police Department and the FBI are following "strong leads" to figure out how a massive amount of money was sucked out of the Manor Independent School District, according to a news release from Friday.

The district services over 8,000 students from elementary to high school.

The police told local ABC affiliate KVUE that the scheme started in the first part of November and continued through December before the district found out and reported it.

"It was three separate transactions. Unfortunately they didn’t recognize the fact that the bank account information had been changed and they sent three separate transactions over the course of a month before it was recognized that it was a fraudulent bank account," said Detective Anne Lopez to the station.

"This investigation is still ongoing" and the police are encouraging anyone with information to contact the Manor Police Department at 512-215-8035.