A hacker stole the paychecks from four FDNY firefighters by breaking into a computer at their engine company, stealing their passwords — and then routing the dough to Russia, sources said on Wednesday.
The firefighters, from Staten Island’s Engine Co. 167, discovered that their paychecks hadn’t been direct-deposited into their bank accounts about three weeks ago, the sources said.
“The victims found no deposits. When they called payroll, they found that their paychecks had been ‘rerouted,’ ” a source explained.
City Department of Investigation probers suspect the savvy thief was able to exploit a computer virus to retrieve the firefighters’ names and passwords for their work computer.
Then the thief was able to use that data to gain access to the city’s Employee Self Service system, which stores city workers’ personnel data, to change the victims’ bank routing numbers, the sources said.
The thief eventually had the money placed onto a prepaid bank card that was later cashed in Russia, a source explained.
Firefighters get paid every other week, and the estimated theft exceeds $ 10,000 and caused the ESS system to be knocked out of service as the investigation continues, the sources said.
An FDNY spokeswoman said the victims’ losses have since been reimbursed.
And Diane Struzzi, a spokeswoman for DOI, said her agency “is investigating this matter . . . There is no evidence that any other accounts from city computers have been hijacked.”
The caper follows similar computer thefts in June, when another FDNY firefighter and an Emergency Medical Service employee were fleeced in much the same way after using their home computers, according to information distributed by the Uniformed Firefighters Association.
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