The MacEwan University ,a post-secondary educational institution located in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada is fooled by phishing emails, duped of 11.8 million dollars.
The university says that workers were fooled by a series of fake emails asking them to change electronic banking information for one of the school’s major vendors.
The change resulted in the transfer of nearly $12 million into a bank account staff thought belonged to the vendor, but officials found out they had been scammed.
University spokesman David Beharry says the university has conducted an interim audit of business processes and controls were put in place to prevent further incidents and the university’s computer systems have not been compromised, but a preliminary assessment has determined that controls around the process of changing vendor banking information were inadequate.
Advanced Education Minister Marlin Schmidt said he’s “very disappointed” the university fell victim to the crime, adding he’s instructed all university board chairs to review their financial controls.