City of Greenville’s Verizon account hacked; nearly $70,000 worth of phones bought, police say

By Stephanie Moore

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    GREENVILLE, South Carolina (WYFF) — The city of Greenville’s Verizon business account was hacked and more than $68,000 worth of phones were bought, according to authorities in North Charleston, where the arrest was made.

Investigators with the North Charleston Police Department said Greenville police contacted them about the hack.

They said the phones were shipped to a North Charleston hotel.

The suspect, 35-year-old James L. Bragg, was arrested at the hotel and was in possession of several fake driver’s licenses, investigators said.

He is charged with obtaining goods by false pretense greater than $10,000 and financial identity fraud.

Bragg will also be charged by Greenville police.

He’s being held at the Al Cannon Detention Center.

Phil Yanov, Founder of Tech After Five, said hacks can be hard to detect at first, and recommends thoroughly checking each phone bill before simply paying it. He said this can be useful to anyone looking to keep their data secure.

“I think it could be hard to detect this unless some big number shows up,” Yanov said. “But someone getting into your phone account could be easy for anyone who’s determined. All I’d have to do is have a copy of your bill and then I could start ordering phones or making changes. Typically all the stuff they’d need is in the bill.”

Right now it is unknown how the hack happened.

Yanov said it can also be a security concern if someone is able to access personal information through a phone account. Yanov said phone account users should also implement layers of security by using multi-step authenticators for example

City of Greenville spokeswoman Beth Brotherton said the city became aware of an excessive number of cell phone orders placed using the city’s Verizon account.

Brotherton said the staff spent several hours analyzing the orders and were able to cancel many of them. She said some had already shipped to a hotel in North Charleston.

She also noted the following:

No city infrastructure, network, servers, or computers were affected or breached through this incident. The city did not lose any money. We have strict procurement and payment standards. No personal information, either public or city employee-related, was available to be accessed. City IT reviewing this scenario to see if process changes need to be made.

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