Greenwich Police say that a Midwood Road resident reported a financial crime on Dec 29.
According to Greenwich Police Lt Slusarz, the victim was closing on a new property on the 29th around 11:00am, and received what he believed was an email from his attorney to wire money to a bank in California.
The victim authorized the transfer of $600,000. He was then contacted by his attorney who said he hadn’t received the escrow money.
“It appears that somebody had corrupted his attorney’s email,” Slusarz said. The case is currently under investigation, and police seek to learn where the money actually went.
The victim discovered his attorney’s email was compromised and an unknown individual representing himself as the attorney was communicating with him. This is a little more sophisticated than the normal financial fraud.
Lt Slusarz warned residents, “When you get communications like this from people you think you trust, take a close look at the website it. A lot of people doing these frauds are making a website address very similar to the one you trust, but the extension or a couple letters are different. Be very careful about that.”