The Save the Children charity says hackers stole nearly $1 million from the nonprofit through a sophisticated email scam.
The Boston Globe reports that scammers hacked into the email of a worker at the Fairfield, Connecticut-based charity last year, posed as an employee, and created false invoices and other documents to fool the charity into sending nearly $1 million to a fraudulent entity in Japan.
The scammers claimed the money was needed to purchase solar panels for health centers in Pakistan, a country where Save the Children has worked for decades.
The Save the Children Federation, the U.S. affiliate of the international relief organization, said its insurance reimbursed all but $112,000 of the stolen funds.
The charity has since tightened its cybersecurity and bank transfer protocols to prevent fraud.
“This crime was committed and investigated in 2017, and reported in our 2017 990. We have improved our security measures to help ensure this does not happen again. Fortunately, through insurance, we were ultimately reimbursed for most of the funds that were stolen.” Save the Children said in a statement.
