On the evening of Sept. 12, 2024, students and staff of Salisbury High School were met with an email detailing a job offer for $300. In order to receive this money, students had to enter in personal information regarding their name, address and banking details.
Emails were sent using a hijacked email address belonging to a teacher at Salisbury High School. This bypassed the filter that prevents emails from out of district from entering student emails.
Initially these fake emails began with an impersonation of District Superintendent Lynn Fuini-Hetten, which was used to deceive the staff members and teachers of Salisbury High School, gaining access to multiple teacher accounts in the process. After the teacher’s accounts had been breached, they were then used to send the scam out to student emails. Namely, English teacher Doctor Chris Butynskyi’s email.
Whether intentional or not, Butynskyi’s reputation and credibility amongst students led to many feeling safe about the false email bearing his name. Being known for his easy going yet academically focused nature, many students didn’t think twice about accepting an offer sent using his email.
Some students had responded to the email’s form, offering their personal information for the fake job opportunity, causing panic after the scam had been revealed.
Clean up efforts for this incident had involved the temporary suspension of all Salisbury High School emails, inadvertently suspending all digital classroom activity through the 12th to around the 17-18th of September.
Upon the system restoration, students went through a variety of security procedures as emails were reactivated and classroom activities resumed.
