Phishing Scam Defrauds MacEwan University off $11.8m

During a phishing scam valuing $11.8m that targeted MacEwan University, the fraudsters purported to be Clark Builders, a contracting and construction firm based in Edmonton. According to Paul Verhesen, president and chief executive of Clark Builders, the company wasn't happy about the incident wherein someone fraudulently utilized their brand, logo along with plentiful information.

Actually MacEwan University got one e-mail which seemed as from the Clark Builders, asking that their payment system be changed. Apparently, MacEwan representatives, devoid of verifying the message, responded to the request and carried out 3 payments together valuing $11.8m and deposited into certain accounts in Hong Kong and Montreal as known after tracing the money.

The university came to know the blunder at the time Clark Builders in real contacted the school regarding what held it up from making the due payment. When more investigations were done, it seemed a good 14 construction companies near Edmonton had been targeted.

Employees of MacEwan transferred nearly $12m thinking they were paying to Clark. The amount paid went out in three slots from $22K to $9.9m, but it actually went to the phishing scammers during August 10-19. The university stated that money transmitted had been frozen even as lawyers were hired for trying to get back the stolen funds. An amount of $400K hasn't yet been traced. Globalnews.ca posted this, September 1, 2017.

Following the incident MacEwan University in a joint task with officials from China and Canada is trying to get back its lost money; however, it all works like one tale of caution at various levels.

Canada's local media described the scam as a massive one the country encountered. Verhesen stated that Clark Builders had once again stressed on its rules and regulations of cyber-security for its staff. He was happy with the manner in which MacEwan University had handled the situation.

According to Mr. Vestby, his organization helps enterprises and it'll in fact dispatch "ethical phishing" frauds for observing the number of employees actually pursuing the embedded web-links. While no notice has been posted about the time these e-mails would get dispatched, they appear exactly same as the real phishing scams.

» SPAMfighter News - 9/11/2017