Savoy Medical Center in Mamou, La., wired thousands of dollars last year to a scammer posing as one of their vendors, according to a report from the Louisiana Legislative Auditor.
The report, released Aug. 21, noted Savoy Medical Center sent $226,330 to an unknown party pretending to be one of their vendors last August. The vendor's business email had been compromised, and the hacker fraudulently modified payment instructions.
The vendor identified the breech when it did not receive Savoy's payment. Savoy reported the issue to their bank and attempted to recover funds, according to the report. Since the hospital didn't have procedures in place to validate wire instructions received through email, the incident wasn't covered by insurance.
However, $81,819 of the funds were recovered by Sept. 29, 2023.
Savoy's leadership team revised procedures for confirming modified vendor information and requests after the incident.