Tyler ISD Admits Providing Financial Info, W-2 Forms to Scammer

TYLER – The Tyler Independent School District has confirmed a report stating the district had fallen victim to a scammer. A source employed by the school district reached out to our news partner KETK on Friday stating someone in their administration office sent 2016 Tyler ISD employee W-2 information to a scammer who was posing as Superintendent Marty Crawford. Tyler ISD confirmed the report. Copies of all 2016 TISD employees were given to the “spoof account” before the district discovered it was a fraudulent. The mistake was discovered on Wednesday. The school district says the incident only affects those who were employed by TISD in 2016.

The district has outlined ways they are currently trying to correct the error to to prevent any further damage:

– Identity protection (To be paid for by Tyler ISD)

– Establish call center for employee questions

– Notify law enforcement and IRS

– Encouraging employees to file 2016 tax returns as soon as possible

At this time, TISD does not believe their IT systems were otherwise compromised by this attack. However, the IT team is assessing the security and soundness of their systems and determining how best to prevent these types of attacks in the future. “We will continue and improve upon our information security awareness and training programs for all employees,” the letter concludes. “We apologize for any inconvenience this incident causes you. Please know that we are working diligently to remedy this incident and to prevent any similar incidents from occurring in the future.”