A hockey association was recently the victim of a phishing scam that saw the sports organization lose thousands of dollars in a scheme.
According to a statement from the McKnight Hockey Association, the treasurer of the organization received an email in January which appeared to be sent by officials with the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC), indicating an immediate transfer of funds.
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The treasurer then attempted to contact their fellow board members regarding the transaction, but somehow failed to. Although the McKnight Hockey Association’s banking agreement with RBC requires two authorized signatures to issue cheques, these safety measure do not apply to wire transfers.
The fraudulent email contained details that made it appear as if the association’s board had approved the transfer. Thus, the transfer was approved and the association only later learned that it was being scammed.
Calgary Herald reported that the association was defrauded close to $98,000. An investigation is now underway with the Calgary police and RBC. McKnight Hockey hopes to retrieve the money, either through the capture of the culprits, or through insurance.
“Quite frankly, I wasn’t even aware we could wire transfer money,” association vice-president Srecko Zizakovic told CTV News. “We’ve never done it in the past so it was really a challenge when I found out this had happened.”
Zizakovic revealed that about eight to 10 other local hockey associations were also targeted by a phishing scheme, but they were able to identify and pre-empt the ploys.
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“The McKnight organization was defrauded of some money. The situation was done through the internet and through some technology that I’ll be honest, I really don’t understand,” Hockey Calgary executive director Kevin Kobelka said in an interview with Sportsnet 960.
“It’s sad to see in this day and age that people are targeting volunteer organizations and sports organizations that have a lot of dedicated people stepping up to do their very best,” Kobelka added.
The McKnight Hockey Association suspects that the fraudsters collected director names and email addresses from its website, using the information to create a believable wire transfer request.
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