City of Mansfield Finance Department Responds to Phishing Incident
Mansfield, OH – 6/4/2025 – The City of Mansfield’s Finance Department has been the target of an email spoofing scheme involving the impersonation of a vendor’s Chief Financial Officer. The fraud resulted in the unauthorized redirection of a valid payment to a fraudulent account. A bad actor, impersonating as the CFO of a legitimate vendor, contacted the City with a request to update banking information used for ACH payments. Believing the request to be authentic, the Finance Department processed the change. A subsequent payment for a legitimate invoice was then made to the fraudulent account.
Upon detection of the irregularity, the receiving financial institution flagged the transaction as suspicious and promptly reported it to the originating bank. As a result, the account was frozen. We have been informed that any remaining funds will be recoverable upon completion of the bank’s investigation.
The City’s internal network, systems, and data infrastructure were not compromised as part of this incident. Importantly, the City of Mansfield is fully insured against financial fraud of this nature. At no time were taxpayer dollars at risk.
Immediately following the incident, the City of Mansfield took all actions required by the State of Ohio in response to such an occurrence. Additionally, the City has conducted a comprehensive internal review and has implemented enhanced internal policies and controls to prevent similar incidents moving forward.
This matter is being handled with the utmost seriousness. An internal task force including the City Administration, the Mansfield Police Department, the Law Director’s Office, Information Technology, Risk Management, and the Finance Department is actively engaged in a coordinated effort to contain the situation and strengthen the City’s defenses against future threats. The task force remains ongoing.
“As Finance Director, I take this situation very seriously. While we regret that this incident occurred, I want to emphasize that we acted swiftly, cooperated fully with all involved agencies, and have already taken steps to strengthen our internal controls. Our top priority is safeguarding public funds and maintaining the public’s trust,” said Kelly Blankenship, Finance Director for the City of Mansfield.
The City of Mansfield is committed to accountability, transparency, and the continuous improvement of our systems to protect public resources. We will provide additional information as appropriate and permitted during the ongoing investigation.
Kelly Blankenship
Finance Director
City of Mansfield
