{"id":61357,"date":"2019-08-05T13:34:36","date_gmt":"2019-08-05T18:34:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/?p=61357"},"modified":"2019-08-12T07:40:17","modified_gmt":"2019-08-12T12:40:17","slug":"north-carolina-cabarrus-county-scam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/north-carolina-cabarrus-county-scam\/","title":{"rendered":"North Carolina County Loses $1.7M in Email Scam"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Cabarrus County of North Carolina Suffers a Massive Financial Loss<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>The North Carolina county of Cabarrus, <a href=\"https:\/\/nakedsecurity.sophos.com\/2019\/08\/01\/north-carolina-county-falls-for-bec-scam-to-the-tune-of-1728083\/\">confirmed <\/a>they were fooled by scammers in December 2018, sending them $2.5 million dollars.  The crooks were very targeted and thorough with their attack, using social engineering to pose as Branch and Associates.  Branch and Associates is a general contractor that is currently working on building a new school for Cabarrus County schools.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The scam originated on November 27, 2018, with a string of emails the scammers sent, portraying Branch and Associates.  These emails included a bank update request.  County officials claimed the email looked legitimate, and that they often receive these requests.  Therefore, they completed the update with no questions asked.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Then, in December the county&#8217;s payment was sent to the updated bank account.  Once it was cleared, the crooks funneled the funds to various accounts.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The county did not realize they had made a mistake until January 8, 2019, when the legitimate contractor sent a reminder that the December payment was not made.  The county confirmed the funds were processed and realized they had been scammed.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>County officials notified their bank immediately and were able to recover a fraction of the initial $2.5M payment.  Just over $776,000 to be exact.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At this time, the scam remains under investigation by the Cabarrus County Sheriff\u2019s Office and the FBI.  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Cabarrus County of North Carolina Suffers a Massive Financial Loss The North Carolina county of Cabarrus, confirmed they were fooled by scammers in December 2018, sending them $2.5 million dollars. The crooks were very targeted and thorough with their attack, using social engineering to pose as Branch and Associates. Branch and Associates is a general [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54,"featured_media":55334,"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":[7,5090],"tags":[133],"class_list":["post-61357","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsletter","category-slider","tag-scam"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>North Carolina County Loses $1.7M in Email Scam<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The North Carolina county of Cabarrus, confirmed they were fooled by scammers in December 2018, sending them $2.5 million 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\/north-carolina-cabarrus-county-scam\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"North Carolina County Loses $1.7M in Email Scam\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The North Carolina county of Cabarrus, confirmed they were fooled by scammers in December 2018, sending them $2.5 million dollars....\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/north-carolina-cabarrus-county-scam\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"PC Matic Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pcmatic\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-08-05T18:34:36+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-08-12T12:40:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/scamAlertSlider.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1920\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"550\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Kayla Elliott\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@pcmatic\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@pcmatic\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Kayla Elliott\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pcmatic.com\\\/blog\\\/north-carolina-cabarrus-county-scam\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pcmatic.com\\\/blog\\\/north-carolina-cabarrus-county-scam\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Kayla Elliott\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pcmatic.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/d4a11f480158af9f8090d8d90e0de8db\"},\"headline\":\"North Carolina County Loses $1.7M in Email Scam\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-08-05T18:34:36+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-08-12T12:40:17+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pcmatic.com\\\/blog\\\/north-carolina-cabarrus-county-scam\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":228,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pcmatic.com\\\/blog\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pcmatic.com\\\/blog\\\/north-carolina-cabarrus-county-scam\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pcmatic.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/scamAlertSlider.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"scam\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Newsletter\",\"TechTalk Slider\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pcmatic.com\\\/blog\\\/north-carolina-cabarrus-county-scam\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pcmatic.com\\\/blog\\\/north-carolina-cabarrus-county-scam\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pcmatic.com\\\/blog\\\/north-carolina-cabarrus-county-scam\\\/\",\"name\":\"North Carolina County Loses $1.7M in Email Scam\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pcmatic.com\\\/blog\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pcmatic.com\\\/blog\\\/north-carolina-cabarrus-county-scam\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pcmatic.com\\\/blog\\\/north-carolina-cabarrus-county-scam\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pcmatic.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/scamAlertSlider.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-08-05T18:34:36+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-08-12T12:40:17+00:00\",\"description\":\"The North Carolina county of Cabarrus, confirmed they were fooled by scammers in December 2018, sending them $2.5 million dollars....\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pcmatic.com\\\/blog\\\/north-carolina-cabarrus-county-scam\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pcmatic.com\\\/blog\\\/north-carolina-cabarrus-county-scam\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pcmatic.com\\\/blog\\\/north-carolina-cabarrus-county-scam\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pcmatic.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/scamAlertSlider.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pcmatic.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/scamAlertSlider.jpg\",\"width\":1920,\"height\":550},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pcmatic.com\\\/blog\\\/north-carolina-cabarrus-county-scam\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pcmatic.com\\\/blog\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"North Carolina County Loses $1.7M in Email Scam\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pcmatic.com\\\/blog\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pcmatic.com\\\/blog\\\/\",\"name\":\"PC Matic Blog\",\"description\":\"Tech Tips and Tricks\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pcmatic.com\\\/blog\\\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pcmatic.com\\\/blog\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pcmatic.com\\\/blog\\\/#organization\",\"name\":\"PC Matic - Top Antivirus Company in the USA.\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pcmatic.com\\\/blog\\\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pcmatic.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/techtalk.pcmatic.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/PC-MaticLogo-e1472689639222.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/techtalk.pcmatic.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/PC-MaticLogo-e1472689639222.png\",\"width\":1535,\"height\":483,\"caption\":\"PC Matic - Top Antivirus Company in the USA.\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pcmatic.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.facebook.com\\\/pcmatic\",\"https:\\\/\\\/x.com\\\/pcmatic\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.instagram.com\\\/pcmaticusa\\\/\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.linkedin.com\\\/company\\\/pcmatic\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.youtube.com\\\/c\\\/PCMaticVideo\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pcmatic.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/d4a11f480158af9f8090d8d90e0de8db\",\"name\":\"Kayla Elliott\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pcmatic.com\\\/blog\\\/author\\\/kayla\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"North Carolina County Loses $1.7M in Email Scam","description":"The North Carolina county of Cabarrus, confirmed they were fooled by scammers in December 2018, sending them $2.5 million dollars....","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/north-carolina-cabarrus-county-scam\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"North Carolina County Loses $1.7M in Email Scam","og_description":"The North Carolina county of Cabarrus, confirmed they were fooled by scammers in December 2018, sending them $2.5 million dollars....","og_url":"https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/north-carolina-cabarrus-county-scam\/","og_site_name":"PC Matic Blog","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pcmatic","article_published_time":"2019-08-05T18:34:36+00:00","article_modified_time":"2019-08-12T12:40:17+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1920,"height":550,"url":"https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/scamAlertSlider.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Kayla Elliott","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@pcmatic","twitter_site":"@pcmatic","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Kayla Elliott","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/north-carolina-cabarrus-county-scam\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/north-carolina-cabarrus-county-scam\/"},"author":{"name":"Kayla Elliott","@id":"https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/d4a11f480158af9f8090d8d90e0de8db"},"headline":"North Carolina County Loses $1.7M in Email Scam","datePublished":"2019-08-05T18:34:36+00:00","dateModified":"2019-08-12T12:40:17+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/north-carolina-cabarrus-county-scam\/"},"wordCount":228,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/north-carolina-cabarrus-county-scam\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/scamAlertSlider.jpg","keywords":["scam"],"articleSection":["Newsletter","TechTalk Slider"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/north-carolina-cabarrus-county-scam\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/north-carolina-cabarrus-county-scam\/","url":"https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/north-carolina-cabarrus-county-scam\/","name":"North Carolina County Loses $1.7M in Email Scam","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/north-carolina-cabarrus-county-scam\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/north-carolina-cabarrus-county-scam\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/scamAlertSlider.jpg","datePublished":"2019-08-05T18:34:36+00:00","dateModified":"2019-08-12T12:40:17+00:00","description":"The North Carolina county of Cabarrus, confirmed they were fooled by scammers in December 2018, sending them $2.5 million dollars....","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/north-carolina-cabarrus-county-scam\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/north-carolina-cabarrus-county-scam\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/north-carolina-cabarrus-county-scam\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/scamAlertSlider.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/scamAlertSlider.jpg","width":1920,"height":550},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/north-carolina-cabarrus-county-scam\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"North Carolina County Loses $1.7M in Email Scam"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/","name":"PC Matic Blog","description":"Tech Tips and Tricks","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/#organization","name":"PC Matic - Top Antivirus Company in the USA.","url":"https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/techtalk.pcmatic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/PC-MaticLogo-e1472689639222.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/techtalk.pcmatic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/PC-MaticLogo-e1472689639222.png","width":1535,"height":483,"caption":"PC Matic - Top Antivirus Company in the USA."},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pcmatic","https:\/\/x.com\/pcmatic","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/pcmaticusa\/","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/pcmatic","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/c\/PCMaticVideo"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/d4a11f480158af9f8090d8d90e0de8db","name":"Kayla Elliott","url":"https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/author\/kayla\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61357","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/54"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61357"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61357\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55334"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}