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How one letter deprived Tennessee schools of the social program.
In Tennessee, a school district has lost more than $3 million to fraudsters. In March, an employee of the Johnson School District's Department of Finance received a letter that he believed to be an official request from Pearson, a provider of educational materials. However, the sender's address was fake - instead of the official domain, the scammers used a similar address ending in ".quest".
The scammers used the pearson.quest domain, which superficially resembled the official address of Pearson, a company that provides educational resources for online learning. After exchanging information with the fraudsters about bank details and payment dates, a school employee initiated 2 transfers totaling $3.36 million.
After 2 weeks, the district bank reported suspicious activity, but the money had already managed to go to other accounts. However, so far, only $742,000 of the stolen funds have been recovered.
A U.S. Secret Service agent investigated and traced the money to bank accounts belonging to 76-year-old Texas resident John Crowson. He admitted to opening accounts and accepting transfers, but claimed that he did so at the request of his fiancée, whom he saw several times before she allegedly went abroad to resolve inheritance issues. Crowson was convinced that he was helping her get an inheritance from her father, which she could not transfer to accounts in the United States.
Three other people interviewed also confirmed that they opened accounts to receive money at the request of people they met online. Such individuals, known as "mullahs", often become involved in money-laundering schemes without even realizing their role. According to the FBI, such schemes are often built on false romantic or trusting relationships that scammers build with victims. This scheme is called a romance scam.
This kind of scheme is used as part of business email fraud (BEC), where attackers send emails from fake or hacked addresses to convince company employees to transfer money to fake accounts. In 2023, in the United States alone, such schemes led to losses of at least $2.9 billion.
Source
In Tennessee, a school district has lost more than $3 million to fraudsters. In March, an employee of the Johnson School District's Department of Finance received a letter that he believed to be an official request from Pearson, a provider of educational materials. However, the sender's address was fake - instead of the official domain, the scammers used a similar address ending in ".quest".
The scammers used the pearson.quest domain, which superficially resembled the official address of Pearson, a company that provides educational resources for online learning. After exchanging information with the fraudsters about bank details and payment dates, a school employee initiated 2 transfers totaling $3.36 million.
After 2 weeks, the district bank reported suspicious activity, but the money had already managed to go to other accounts. However, so far, only $742,000 of the stolen funds have been recovered.
A U.S. Secret Service agent investigated and traced the money to bank accounts belonging to 76-year-old Texas resident John Crowson. He admitted to opening accounts and accepting transfers, but claimed that he did so at the request of his fiancée, whom he saw several times before she allegedly went abroad to resolve inheritance issues. Crowson was convinced that he was helping her get an inheritance from her father, which she could not transfer to accounts in the United States.
Three other people interviewed also confirmed that they opened accounts to receive money at the request of people they met online. Such individuals, known as "mullahs", often become involved in money-laundering schemes without even realizing their role. According to the FBI, such schemes are often built on false romantic or trusting relationships that scammers build with victims. This scheme is called a romance scam.
This kind of scheme is used as part of business email fraud (BEC), where attackers send emails from fake or hacked addresses to convince company employees to transfer money to fake accounts. In 2023, in the United States alone, such schemes led to losses of at least $2.9 billion.
Source
