Hartland village trustee speaks out after losing more than $1K to phishing scam

 

HARTLAND, Wis. (CBS 58) -- A Hartland village trustee's on the hook for $1200 in gift cards she thought she was buying at the request of the village president. It was a scam. She originally sought reimbursement from the village, then later withdrew her request.

The scam is hitting Ann Wallschlager hard at the holidays. Over a thousand dollars lost. She's sharing her story in hopes that it doesn't happen to anyone else.

"You think, it's not going to happen to me, I'm smarter than that," said Hartland Village Trustee Ann Wallschlager.

A phishing email tricked the trustee. Sent to her village email, it looked legit, claiming to be from Hartland's village president, asking her to buy several gift cards right away.

"I went and got them and found out after I had finished the last one that it was fraud," said Wallschlager.

The scammer continued contact, convincing Wallschlager to read off the pin numbers on the cards.

"Usually urgency behind it. It's a secret, we don't want anybody else to know about it, but they really target people with purchasing power within an organization," said Tiffany Schultz, regional director, Better Business Bureau Serving Wisconsin.

It's a scam the Better Business Bureau refers to as "B-E-C." that's business email compromise.

"Pick up the phone. Ask, did you send this email? Request me to purchase these gift cards? I just want to get your approval because the email does not look legitimate," said Schultz.

Wallschlager says she did text the village president after receiving the emails, but didn't hear back from him until the end of the day.

"I was in a training session at work, which was an all-day training seminar, and I walked out in the late afternoon and saw that there was a picture of gift cards from a trustee that was texted to me," said Jeffrey Pfannerstill, Hartland village president.

Wallschlager had hoped to get reimbursed from the village but decided to withdraw her request.

"It was a very unfortunate situation. I think the best thing we can do at this time is use this almost as a public service announcement. Be cognizant of who's sending the emails, really look at it, check that email address and if anything seems odd, don't do anything until you verify that that is real," said Pfannerstill.

Moving forward, these trustees agree that they will do cyber security training every year right after the spring election.