Cabarrus County and PaymentWorks

Clip from August 25, 2021 Nacha Smarter Faster Payments Conference

Vendor Email Compromise. Business Email Compromise. Vendor Impersonation. 

They all are stepping stones to a social engineering scam designed to trick someone on your staff into changing vendor bank account details.

Cabarrus County learned this lesson the hard way when they fell victim to a $2.5M scam. 

Although nearly 74% of organizations reported being targeted for these types of scams in 2020, it's very rare that a victim will share the details so that others may learn.  This case study is a rare glimpse into the operational and emotional toll this event had on the employees of the county.  

In this case study key members of the affected team walk us through:

• The event and the aftermath - exactly how they were tricked and what resulted
• What immediate steps they took to mitigate further risk and the new problems these controls created
• How finding a partner and refining their process eliminated their risk of further financial losses (and how they now all sleep better at night!)