Skip to main content
Add as a preferred source on Google

Texas School District Loses $2.3M to Phishing Scam

  • By Yvonne Marquez
  • 01/13/20

Manor ISD, located outside of Austin, TX, lost $2.3 million in an email phishing scam. Three separate fraudulent transactions happened in November, according to the Manor Police Department. A district employee noticed the discrepancies in December and alerted the police.  

Detective Anne Lopez told a local news station that she frequently sees people and businesses fall victim to online scammers but not of this magnitude involving a school district.

Phishing email scams are attempts to access personal information and can happen by using disguised emails, fake links, ransomware, etc. The police didn’t specify how exactly the illegal transactions happened.

Police and the FBI are still investigating but say they have "strong leads." It’s unclear if the district will get the money back.

Police are warning people to verify links and email addresses before clicking on them or entering information online.

About the Author

Yvonne Marquez is senior editor of Spaces4Learning. She can be reached at [email protected].

Featured

  • Phoenix School District Breaks Ground on New Prep Academy

    The Creighton Elementary School District near Phoenix, Ariz., recently broke ground on a campus replacement for Biltmore Preparatory Academy, according to a news release. The new space will allow the school to expand its enrollment by 50 percent for K–8 students and accommodate modern, collaborative learning styles.

  • University of Oklahoma Announces New Campus Master Plan

    The University of Oklahoma in Norman, Okla., recently announced that it will soon launch a new, comprehensive Campus Master Plan to guide the campus’ physical development during the next decade, according to a news release.

  • Full Sail University Announces First Student Housing Facility

    Full Sail University in Winter Park, Fla., recently announced that development has begun on its first student housing community, according to a news release. The university is partnering with Nvision Development for construction and long-term management of the facility, which will stand five stories and have the capacity for more than 570 beds.

  • Doerr School of Sustainability Accelerator

    From Concrete Warehouse to Innovation Hub: Accelerating Sustainability at Stanford

    The transformation of a once windowless, concrete publishing warehouse into a sun-drenched center for global innovation began with a single, fundamental challenge: how to turn an industrial storage shell into a space built for human connection.