The Southern Door County School District recovered the nearly $68,000 it lost to a phishing email scam in the fall of 2025 and made a number of changes to its financial and cybersecurity practices in the wake of the scam, the school announced in a July 15 news release.
Laura E. Griffin, 50, of Pickerington, Ohio, faces two Class G felony charges in Door County Circuit Court for theft by false representation of amounts between $10,000 and $100,000 each. Griffin is scheduled for an initial court appearance at 10 a.m. July 27 before Judge David Weber.
The criminal complaint says Griffin sent the district two invoices by email for school-related supplies and services, totaling $67,636, that were made to look like they were first sent to the email address for school superintendent Kevin Krutzik and then forwarded from there to the district accounting office with requests to process the invoices. The district sent checks to Griffin to cover the invoices Sept. 23 and Oct. 23, 2025.
But the forwarded emails came from a fake account set up to impersonate Krutzik’s. The complaint says Krutzik was not involved, and the only school email account involved was the one from the accounting office.
Krutzik notified school resource officer Deputy Clayton Paral on Nov. 12 about the phishing emails and the two checks sent to Griffin. Subsequent investigation by Jonathan Gilson of the sheriff’s office found Griffin received and deposited the checks but withdrew all of the funds were withdrawn, along with $2,500 from other sources, in 39 transactions totaling $68,000 from Oct. 3 to Nov. 3. The $68,000 was transferred to two digital accounts and then used to buy Bitcoin that was sent to five different digital wallets.
Interviewed in March by authorities, Griffin said her boyfriend, who she indicated she’s never met in person but said he worked for the U.S. Army, sent her the checks and she followed his instructions to convert the funds to crypto, also saying he said he needed the money to come home. She also said besides the funds from the two Southern Door checks, she sent the person about $120,000 over the past five years from bank and investment accounts, bought him a cellphone and sent a copy of her ID to him in 2025.
The news release about the incident said the school district has cooperated fully with the investigation and recovered its monetary losses from its insurance company, minus the deductible on the policy. It also says this was part of a series of cybercrimes associated with the case, although it did not elaborate on the other possible victims and perpetrators.
As for additional safeguards to try to prevent similar scams in the future, the news release said the district thoroughly reviewed its financial and cybersecurity practices and implemented several changes. These include providing updated purchasing training, expanding the types of purchases that require a purchase order, and adding additional email security through Door County-based IT company Quantum Technologies to help protect against phishing, brand forgery and account takeovers.
“We take our responsibility to safeguard public funds and district systems very seriously,” the news release said. “Although no process can eliminate every risk, these changes provide stronger layers of review, accountability and cybersecurity protection. We are committed to doing everything possible to prevent a similar incident from occurring again.”
The Advocate asked Krutzik several followup questions to the news release, including how district staff figured out the invoices were fake, what it knows about the other similar phishing scams mentioned in the news release, and if any changes were made in staff or their roles because of the incident. Krutzik replied by email that the district is using the news release to provide information and he is not commenting further.
Contact Christopher Clough at 920-562-8900 or cclough@usatodayco.com.
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This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: Southern Door Schools make changes, regains $68K lost to phishing scam
Reporting by Christopher Clough, Green Bay Press-Gazette / Green Bay Press-Gazette
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Christopher Clough, Green Bay Press-Gazette | USA TODAY Network
