CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Cleveland’s public library system — a storied institution with a professional finance department — nearly lost $400,000 to a run-of-the-mill email scam, raising flags about how vulnerable local governments are to fraud.

On cleveland.com’s “Today in Ohio” podcast Thursday, hosts called the incident “unnerving” and questioned how a major public institution could fall for such a basic scheme, especially when the private sector put safeguards in place years ago.

A state audit revealed that Cleveland’s library system lacked “proper internal controls” to detect fake vendors, allowing scammers to hijack a legitimate vendor’s email and redirect $400,000, podcast host Lisa Garvin explained on the podcast. While the library eventually recovered the money through insurance an

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