BRUNSWICK, Maine — An employee in the Brunswick School Department’s administrative office Monday responded to what turned out to be a phishing scam, emailing to the scammer tax forms, minus dates of birth and Social Security numbers, from about 400 school department employees.
Brunswick police Cmdr. Mark Waltz said Wednesday that the superintendent’s office reported to police that a scammer had sent what appeared to be a message from Superintendent Paul Perzanoski’s email address to a secretary requesting the documents.
The employee suspected something was not right, Waltz said, and deleted Social Security numbers and dates of birth before sending with the documents.
But when the scammer asked again for the deleted information, school department employees discovered the con.
On Tuesday, Perzanoski notified employees by letter.
“It’s certainly disconcerting to know your W2 was sent to someone, but they would have trouble stealing their identity without a Social Security number or date of birth,” Waltz said.
Waltz said police will obtain a subpoena and send it to the email address of the scammer “and see what we can get.”
Then police will send the information either to the FBI or Secret Service, he said.
School districts in Biddeford and Kittery also were targeted, according to media reports.