Education authority hit for €50k in online scam

A Midlands education authority was caught for at least €50,000 by a phishing scam which is still under Garda investigation two years later.

The exact nature of the fraud against Laois-Offaly Education and Training Board (LOETB), or the amount involved, are not known. But the board has not been left out of pocket, due to co-operation between banks and a goodwill gesture by its insurers.

LOETB chief executive Joe Cunningham told the Irish Examiner it related to the administration of banking procedures with suppliers.

“The board was a victim of fraudulent activity in autumn of 2014 by an external source.

“We immediately introduced new control measure to address that situation where the breach was, and we informed the gardaí,” he said.

While the board’s financial accounts for the period described the matter as being caused by a “control weakness”, the office of Comptroller and Auditor General (C&AG) Seamus McCarthy said it was due to a “control failure”.

The fraud occurred around the same time that a number of organisations and individuals were hit by a phishing scam — in which emails purporting to be from eircom (now eir) said there was a problem processing a recent bill, and directed recipients to what looked liked an authentic website where credit card details were to be entered.

A spokesperson for Mr McCarthy said the irregular payment by LOETB is not the subject of any further C&AG investigation, and will not be the subject of a report to the Oireachtas.

In its 2015 accounts published this week, LOETB confirmed that all the money had been recovered.

In view of its long-standing relationship as a good client, the ETB’s insurer, Irish Public Bodies, made good just over €24,000 which was taken fraudulently.

This was the amount outstanding after most of the money transferred to the fraudsters had been recovered through the bank of the recipient account, believed to be an overseas financial institution. However, it is not known how much was originally scammed, with a possibility that it was even a six-figure sum.

A Garda spokesman told the Irish Examiner it would be inappropriate to comment on the case as the investigation is still ongoing.