EAST LANSING, Mich. — The City of East Lansing is working with state and federal law enforcement agencies to recover funds and hold responsible the criminal(s) involved in a cybercrime against the City.
The sophisticated scam involved an entity that compromised a recognized vendor email account and fraudulently changed the routing information for payment of a legitimate bill. The criminals overcame financial validation processes in an attempt to defraud the City and its taxpayers of nearly $550,000.
“We want to reiterate that the integrity of the City’s departments was not compromised. It is thanks to the quick response and due diligence of our well-trained staff that we were able to identify this cybercrime as quickly as we did,” said East Lansing City Manager Robert Belleman. “We are confident that we are doing everything we need to do to recover the funds with the assistance of the financial institution.”
The City of East Lansing’s investigation is ongoing and includes the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Michigan State Police.
For more information about this scam and how to protect oneself, visit the FBI’s resource here.