To: WSO Board of Trustees
Cc: ACA Members
From: Bill D., General Manager
Date: 11/26/2024
Re: Cyber-Fraud
Several months ago the ACA World Service Organization (WSO) hired a printing company in Southern California to produce the initial copies of our new book, A New Hope, for our warehouse inventory. This was done so we could fulfill orders for the book while we awaited the larger shipment from India, expected to arrive in November.
The books were printed and delivered on schedule. After receiving them, the printer contacted us for payment. Unfortunately, we had already processed the payment electronically using banking details provided through email instructions that appeared to be from the printer. During a review, we discovered that an unknown scammer had infiltrated the email correspondence between WSO staff and the printer. The scammer posed as the printer’s employee, even mimicking the owner who had visited our office at the beginning of the project. They sent us a convincing invoice with fraudulent banking information, which led us to transfer the funds to the wrong account. This was an exceptionally well executed scam.
We discovered the fraud in early July and immediately reported it to the FBI, our payment processor, and the banks involved. Despite our best efforts to recover the funds, we could only retrieve $207.37, resulting in a total profit loss of around $10,950.83. We received final confirmation of this outcome on August 29th. Then, we pursued it as an insurance claim, and our provider subsequently denied both our initial claim and the appeal.
Moving forward, we’ve implemented stricter safeguards to ensure all invoices and payments are verified by phone and not solely through email. Our IT Manager has reviewed our systems and email and has determined that the infiltration did not occur on WSO’s email platforms. We are committed to doing everything possible to prevent something like this from happening again.