Phishing scam targets Clovis schools

CLOVIS — The Clovis school district was one of several public entities targeted in a payroll phishing scam according to a press release from the state auditor’s office, but school officials said the scammers did not take any money.

A press release last week from the office of State Auditor Brian Colon said Clovis Municipal Schools, along with the Public Education Department, Santa Fe Public Schools, New Mexico Military Institute, Bernalillo County and Central New Mexico Community College reported to the state auditor that the entities had been targets of a phishing and spoofed email payroll scam.

In the case of Clovis Schools, Assistant Superintendent of Finance Shawna Russell said a text message was sent to Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources Kerry Parker purportedly from a CMS employee looking to change their account information for direct deposit.

Russell said text messaging is not one of the district’s approved methods for altering direct deposit information and that once the message was determined to have been sent by someone other than the employee, the state auditor was notified.

Russell said CMS did not lose any money as a result of the phishing attempt. She said the district is targeted by phishing attempts about once per quarter, although this is the first time she has seen this particular direct deposit scam.