Brookline Town Coffers Targeted By Scammers, FBI Involved Now

BROOKLINE, MA — The Town of Brookline is working with the FBI after the town was the target of a sophisticated cyber scam late last month that was designed to access funds from the Town’s Treasury, according to town officials.

The scam, known to law enforcement agencies as a “business email compromise scam,” or BEC, is where someone either hacks into an account owned by an official at a company or creates a spoof account to look like a real official at the company and then convinces another with the power to transfer funds into an account that actually just goes to the scammer.

In this case, town officials say they caught it just in time.

"Town Treasurer Jeana Franconi was alerted to the scam," said Town Administrator Mel Kleckner in an email to Patch. That prompted an investigation by the Town’s Information Technology Department, the Brookline Police Department, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation he said.

"These agencies, and in particular the Brookline Police Detectives who are trained in responding to cyber scams and skilled assistance of FBI personnel, are credited for their prompt and effective action and preventing the loss of any Town funds," he said.

Brookline Police confirmed an ongoing investigation but said they could not comment further.

In the wake of this incident, "several steps" have been taken to ensure that the Town is fully prepared to prevent and respond to cyber attacks of this nature if they should occur in the future, said Kleckner, but he declined to specify citing a need to protect the integrity of the ongoing criminal investigation and privacy of the involved Town employees.

But as of Wednesday, a number of members of the town's board in charge of finances, the advisory board was not aware of the incident they told Patch.

According to the FBI, the scam has been around for a while and continues to grow, evolve, and target businesses of all sizes. Between January 2015 and February 2017 there was a 1,300 percent increase in identified exposed losses, totaling more than $3 billion.

The Boston Herald broke the story.

Updates to come. In the mean time:((Have you signed up for the daily free Brookline Patch newsletter yet? You should probably get on that. )) And check out this FBI PSA on the scam, which has been around for a while:

Here's what the FBI recommends on how to avoid becoming a victim: Trust but Verify.

Photo by Jenna Fisher/Patch