Fraudsters may have stolen tens of millions of euros earmarked for German COVID-19 financial aid after a province failed to properly check the identity of applicants, according to Handelsblatt. The cybercriminals used a classic phishing scheme: First, they created a copy of the official website used by the North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) province to distribute coronavirus aid to businesses and self-employed folks. Then they launched an email campaign to lure users to the phony website and steal their credentials. Finally, the scammers requested financial aid on behalf of those individuals while using their own bank accounts.

The scheme went on for around three weeks until April 9th, when the local government temporarily suspended payments and took its site offline. In the meantime, police received 576 official fraud reports, with payments varying from €9,000 to €25,000. That means the government may have lost between €31 to €100 million (around $34 to $109 million).