NUECES COUNTY, Texas — NUECES COUNTY, Texas — Nueces County fell victim to five cyberattacks in July, with three of those attacks costing the county around $2 million.
The sheriff's office said what best describes the case they are looking at is a "BEC scheme" — a scam that's grown more common across the Coastal Bend.
I spoke with Katie Galan, director of education at the Better Business Bureau. She says BEC (Business Email Compromise) schemes are one of the top three major scams they see target businesses or entities.
Three types scams targeting organizations
The first type is bill pay fraud. That's when someone in charge of paying bills is too busy to double-check invoices and just pays them.
"So if you are a restaurant, maybe it's food supplies or pans, invoices for things that that organization or business would actually be using," Galan said.
Galan says that small businesses are typically hit with this type of scam.
"They try to target entities or organizations that are understaffed," Galan said.
The second type involves phishing emails. Staff members receive an email, click a link, and the fraudulent link will start installing malware that gives the scammer access to logins and passwords.
"If we are talking about city or county entity, we are talking about different login information that can get them into certain portals throughout the organization,” Galan said.
The third type — the one Nueces County may have fallen for — is the BEC scam, also known as business email compromise. Scammers pretend to be a business or vendor the entity already works with and ask to get their banking information changed, sending money straight to the fraudster for future payments.
"If they are emailing you that information, that's a big red flag. Nobody wants their bank account information shared in an email or text message," Galan said.
How to protect yourself from scams
Red flags can also be urgent payment requests or pressure to move quickly. Galan says to lower your chances of getting scammed, verify any changes by calling the organization or vendor that is supposedly sending you the request.
"On that same note, don't call the number they provide you. Go to your official records or an official website, find the phone number that way and give them a call," Galan said.
The reality is anyone can fall victim to a scam.
"Since this happened, I can't tell you all the phone calls I received from cities, counties, business people here locally that have had this exact same thing happen," said Judge Connie Scott of Nueces County.
"It happens right here in the Coastal Bend. There's so much money that is being lost and information that is being compromised that it is very alarming, so we need to make sure we are sharing this information as much as possible," Galan said.
Moving forward, county leaders say the focus is now on prevention.
"This gave us all a very big wake-up call. We are not continuing with EFT transactions. It is paper checks and it will be for a little while," Scott said.
The BBB urges you to report any scam to their website. They pass this information along to law enforcement to warn others and keep them safe.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
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