The municipality of Meierijstad was defrauded for 37,200 euros more than a week ago. An employee received a request by email to transfer money, with the scammer posing as a higher-ranking colleague. The city council writes this in a letter to the city council.
The type of fraud in question here is also known as CEO fraud. The scammer pretends to be someone higher in rank than the person receiving the email. The e-mail contains a request to transfer a large amount of money as a matter of urgency.
In the case of the municipality of Meierijstad, this was successful. An employee transferred 37,200 euros. After the first successful attempt, the scammer tried a second and a third time. They failed, because the official contacted the real official and asked whether the matter was all right.
“We deeply regret that colleagues from our organization have become victims and we will provide aftercare to them. Immediately after the fraud, our procedures were reviewed again and additional measures were taken to prevent CEO fraud,” the municipality writes. .
The amount captured is paid by the municipality from the ‘unforeseen’ pot.
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