The government of Puerto Rico was defrauded of more than $ 2.6 million in the wake of an orchestrated fraud through a phishing scam. The Associated Press reports that a public agency authorized the transfer of funds on 17 January, but the incident was only discovered this week.
The local executive is already working with the FBI on an investigation to recover the lost money.
Ruben Rivera, chief financial officer of the agency responsible for industrial development in the region, confirmed to the Associated Press that the agency received an email that allegedly changed one of the bank accounts that benefited from a monthly payment from the executive. The government then made a payment to the account that allegedly replaces the old one.
It is not known how the authorities found themselves to be the target of a fraudulent scheme, nor whether the government's operations were substantially impacted by the loss of funds.
The fraud reminds us of the danger associated with such schemes, mainly because we are talking about the government of Puerto Rico. Due to a less attentive eye, Puerto Rico ended up losing more than 2.6 million dollars. The fact that the region is in the middle of a recession exacerbates the impact of this phishing scam that could harm the lives of thousands of local families.
