In December of 2020, Moline was the victim of an email phishing scam. Someone who claimed to be one of its regular vendors asked for a wire payment. Then later, the real vendor contacted Moline saying it hadn't received its payment, and that's when Moline tried to get its money back.
Tory Brecht, Communications Coordinator, says the city has put several new measures in place to prevent future phishing scams.
"Strengthening our protocols for how we accept payment for new vendors, how we pay existing vendors, and then we've added another layer of testing. I guess you could say our IT department regularly sends out fake phishing emails just to make sure everyone is on their toes."
Brecht says it's already made a big difference.
"Protecting tax payer money is of paramount importance to everybody here at the city. We feel that we're putting these increased protocols, it's something that is on our radar. And again it's something that we're also insured for in the event that a worst case scenario happens and we're victims of crime again."
Moline's out of pocket cost was around $9,000. The $400,000 is from the cyber liability insurance policy.