MANSFIELD – The City of Mansfield’s Finance Department has been the target of an email spoofing scheme involving the impersonation of a vendor’s Chief Financial Officer, finance director Kelly Blankenship said in a press release.
The fraud resulted in the unauthorized redirection of a valid payment to a fraudulent account, Blankenship reported.
A bad actor, impersonating as the CFO of a legitimate vendor, contacted the City of Mansfield with a request to update banking information used for ACH payments.
Believing the request to be authentic, the Finance Department processed the change. A subsequent payment for a legitimate invoice was then made to the fraudulent account, she stated.
Upon detection of the irregularity, the receiving financial institution flagged the transaction as suspicious and promptly reported it to the originating bank. As a result, the account was frozen.
“We have been informed that any remaining funds will be recoverable upon completion of the bank’s investigation,” Blankenship said.
The City’s internal network, systems, and data infrastructure were not compromised as part of this incident, Blankenship said.
The City of Mansfield is fully insured against financial fraud of this nature. At no time were taxpayer dollars at risk, the press release stated.
Immediately following the incident, the City of Mansfield took all actions required by the State of Ohio in response to such an occurrence.
Additionally, the City has conducted a comprehensive internal review and has implemented enhanced internal policies and controls to prevent similar incidents moving forward, the press release reports
“This matter is being handled with the utmost seriousness,” the press release stated.
An internal task force including the City Administration, the Mansfield Police Department, the Law Director’s Office, Information Technology, Risk Management, and the Finance Department is actively engaged in a coordinated effort to contain the situation and strengthen the City’s defenses against future threats.
The task force remains ongoing.
“As Finance Director, I take this situation very seriously,” Blankenship said. “While we regret that this incident occurred, I want to emphasize that we acted swiftly, cooperated fully with all involved agencies, and have already taken steps to strengthen our internal controls. Our top priority is safeguarding public funds and maintaining the public’s trust.”
The City of Mansfield is committed to accountability, transparency, and the continuous improvement of our systems to protect public resources, the press release stated.
“We will provide additional information as appropriate and permitted during the ongoing investigation,” Blankenship said.
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