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Darien Police Offer Businesses Tips on Avoiding Wire Fraud

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Darien police have just offered tips on how to avoid having your business become a victim of wire fraud. Recently, two Darien businesses — a travel agency and a real estate business — were scammed by hackers who got into a top executive’s email account and issued directives to have money wired. The travel agency lost $10,000. The real estate business lost $48,600. Here’s the complete tip sheet, as posted on Facebook by Darien police:
Town of Darien Business Alert System
Issued by: Det.

Police

Email/Wire Fraud Scheme Costs $48.6K for Darien Realty Business

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When a thief hacked into the email account of the president of a Darien real estate company, the first theft occurred when a phony email directed an employee to wire $24,000 to someone in Anderson, S.C.

Darienite.com reported on the hack-and-theft scheme previously, when Darien police first released some details about it, very shortly after the matter had been reported to police. But those details weren’t the half of it. This week, Darien police said there were a second theft from the same business of $24,900 wired to someone in Glendale, AZ. Just like the other theft, this one involved a phony email directing an employee to send the money. Both thefts occurred Nov.

Darien Police Sign

After Bosses’ Email Hacked, $24K Stolen from One Local Business, $10K from Another

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Twice in the past week, at two different, unrelated Darien businesses, someone got into a boss’ email account and sent phony directives to subordinates to send money. A Darien real estate business lost about $24,000 in one of the scams; a local travel agency lost about $10,000, police said. The employees were directed to wire money to certain locations. The same scam has been tried before, elsewhere, but this is the first time a police spokesman, Sgt. Jeremiah Marron (also a Darien police detective), could recall that it had taken place in Darien. It isn’t known how the thief or thieves were able to use the email accounts.