a hacker sent an email<\/a> to the Harris County auditor’s office claiming to be a contractor who was due for payment.\u00a0 The email claimed they were working on restoring damaged parking lots, cleaning up debris, and building a road for the county.\u00a0 All of this “work” came with an $888,000 price tag.<\/p>\nThe county authorized the payment.\u00a0 However, within 24 hours they were scrambling to reverse the payment, as they had realized they had been scammed.\u00a0 They were able to successfully recover the full payment.\u00a0 Although, the county continues to work with officials to determine where the scam came from.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, this is not the first, nor will it be the last time a hacker exploits the devastation businesses and people are facing.<\/p>\n
To avoid falling victim of scams such as these, it is important individuals check to be sure the email requests are coming from a legitimate source.\u00a0 The email received by the Harris County auditor’s office was made to look like it came from a legitimate contractor they were using.\u00a0 However, instead of contacting the contractor by phone, or using an email address on file they were certain was them, they emailed the fake email back.\u00a0 This is a huge mistake — because the email will go right back to the scammer.\u00a0 Often, scammers will make these emails look like legitimate invoices from businesses the individuals are familiar with.\u00a0 This of course increases the probability of them receiving the payment.\u00a0 Fortunately, Harris County was able to stop the payment.\u00a0 Others aren’t always so lucky.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Harris County of Texas Falls for Phishing Scam Hackers are ruthless.\u00a0 I mean ruthless.\u00a0 Just weeks after Hurricane Harvey, a hacker sent an email to the Harris County auditor’s office claiming to be a contractor who was due for payment.\u00a0 The email claimed they were working on restoring damaged parking lots, cleaning up debris, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54,"featured_media":56197,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[5090,183],"tags":[5459,4390,5044],"class_list":["post-58666","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-slider","category-tips","tag-harris-county","tag-phishing-scam","tag-scammers"],"yoast_head":"\n
Texas County Scrambles to Recover $888K Illegitimate Payment<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Just weeks after Hurricane Harvey, a scammer targeted Harris County in Texas. The scammer sent the county auditor's office a fraudulent email, claiming they owed the "contractor" hundreds of thousands of dollars...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/texas-county-scrambling\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Texas County Scrambles to Recover $888K Illegitimate Payment\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Just weeks after Hurricane Harvey, a scammer targeted Harris County in Texas. 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