Hackers target Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey with phishing scam

Someone hacked Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey's city e-mail account to send out phishing messages this week.

A Star Tribune reporter received an e-mail that purported to be from the mayor on Thursday, with a message that directed the recipient to download a PDF attachment.

"Please download and view below a proposal from The City of Minneapolis for your review, we have a new financial offer that I considered you might be interested in based on the history of your company and decided to give you an exclusive insight first before making it public," the e-mail said.

The e-mail came from a proxy server in Sweden but bypassed security measures because hackers used Frey's e-mail account to send it, said Ryan Elmer, a technology risk advisory lead at Boulay who reviewed the e-mail. The hack appears to be limited to the mayor's e-mail account and does not include the rest of the City Hall network, Elmer said.

In a statement, Frey spokesman Mychal Vlatkovich said the mayor's e-mail account was compromised through a phishing scam and that anyone who received the e-mail should delete it and not open the attachment.

"Our I.T. department has confirmed that the incident has been contained and resolved," the statement said. "We apologize to those who were targeted as a result of this scam."

On Wednesday, Star Tribune reporters received a nearly identical e-mail that appeared to be from Sheila Green, a senior consultant for Tunheim, a local public relations firm.

"We've gone through the process with our technical team to try to get beyond this situation, and so at this point, I think that's the most we can say," Green said Thursday. "It was certainly very disruptive."

Emma Nelson • 612-673-4509