'Lapse of judgment' behind Fire Service scamming

The scam involved email correspondence and a transfer of funds into a Turkish bank account. Photo / Supplied

The Fire Service says a "lapse of judgement" by two staff members caused it to lose $52,000 in a scam last month.

Fire Service chief executive and national commander Paul Baxter said and investigation by internal and external auditors found no breach of Fire Service IT systems and no collusion from employees.

The service announced it had lost the money in a Turkish-based scam last month.

"The investigation found our procurement and expenditure approval policies to be perfectly sound, but in this case they simply weren't followed," Mr Baxter said.

"As a result, we will be running refresher courses on relevant policies and also providing training on cyber risks."

Mr Baxter claimed "appropriate action" had been taken relating to the two staff members, but would not go into more detail.

He said a review of all overseas financial transactions this year confirmed the so-called "whaling" attack was a one-off incident.

"The scam involved email correspondence, ostensibly in the Chief Executive's name, to order the transfer of funds to a Turkish bank account," the Fire Service said.

Whaling scams target high-level executives, using email addresses similar to employee addresses, to make it appear as though they're requesting the funds.

Te Wananga o Aotearoa also fell for a whaling scam this year, and was working to retrieve the money after its chief financial officer transferred some $118,000 to an offshore bank account in the con.