Hackers reportedly stole $2.3 million from the Wisconsin Republican Party just weeks before the election using a scheme involving manipulated invoices, the Associated Press reports. The group noted the theft on October 22nd; Wisconsin Republican Party Chairman Andrew Hitt says that the FBI is currently investigating the case.
According to Hitt, hackers used faked invoices from several vendors the campaign was working with for things like election mailings and Trump merchandise. Instead of featuring the vendor’s payment information, the documents relayed the money to the hackers.
This kind of hack is actually a fairly common scam: Facebook and Google were hit by a similar phishing scheme in 2017 to the tune of $100 million. Scammers regularly use fake invoices to target businesses, organizations, and other groups, hoping to sneak in bogus receipts alongside the legitimate ones. Given how frantic managing an election campaign in the final weeks before the election can be, it’s easy to imagine how the scammed invoices might have slipped by.
The AP report doesn’t note how long the hackers were siphoning money off of the account, but the sum is a sizable one, given that Wisconsin Republican spokesman Alec Zimmerman notes that the party’s federal account currently contains $1.1 million (at time of press — that amount will likely change given the fast pace of the election).
Wisconsin is viewed as an essential state for both the Trump and Biden campaigns in the upcoming election.
Comments
Wow. That’s a lot to lose to fake invoices (not sure if it’s a lot relatively speaking though). I can imagine that office workers just process whatever invoices they receive as long as it matches enough criteria to pass as real.
By jjjjjjjjjjjj on 10.29.20 12:52pm
Wisconsin republicans are largely responsible for that FoxConn factory which doesn’t exist so good riddance? You steal from taxpayers and hackers steal from you? Idk
By Arc Logic on 10.29.20 1:03pm
Lol owned. Hope they donate it all to Planned Parenthood
By PointyThings on 10.29.20 1:04pm
"Nobody gets hacked. To get hacked you need somebody with 197 IQ and he needs about 15 percent of your password."
By Hadr42 on 10.29.20 1:24pm
By Ayemageyene on 10.29.20 1:34pm
"Wisconsin Republican party claims hackers stole $2.3 million from the Wisconsin Republican party"
Fixed that headline for you.
By mispeld on 10.29.20 1:39pm
And the Trump family mysteriously has $2.3m more in their Chinese account.
By dot. on 10.29.20 2:09pm
Don’t recall and Trump sharing an account in China.
By PeteBeast on 10.29.20 5:40pm
Do you have a link to that bombshell revelation, or are you just pulling fud out of your arse?
By YS1500 on 10.30.20 8:19am
whoosh
By dot. on 10.30.20 1:49pm
Absolutely curdles the cheese. This does.
By bda 31175 on 10.29.20 3:26pm
Couldn’t happen to a nicer set of people.
By Unlikely on 10.29.20 3:58pm
I’m sure they’re very fine people.
By Winklemeier on 10.30.20 8:00am
I bet what really happened was that they contracted with Russian hackers to do something nefarious, and like usual, they stiffed the hackers. The hackers took what they were owed, with interest.
By sporkinum on 11.02.20 11:31am
The people who hate Republicans are the same people who lie about the Constitution to invent & defend a "right" to kill their own unborn babies. Is anyone really surprised that people like that also steal?
By ncdave4life on 11.25.20 7:54pm