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The district lost the money at the hands of hackers who infiltrated their email communications with a vendor. The funds were intended to build two fire stations.
"This is the first time and hopefully the last," said Rodger Stout, commissioner and president of Brazos County ESD #1.
The hackers used an elaborate scheme to intercept communications between the district and their vendor.
"So we thought we were communicating with the vendor when actually we were communicating with the hackers," Stout said.
"They got all the way up to the administrative rights and we're basically controlling all of our emails between ourselves and a vendor," Stout continued.
In a statement, Stout explained how the hackers made their deception nearly undetectable: "In the case of our vendor, the name was changed so that instead of a lowercase letter 'I', the hacker changed it to a lowercase 'L' and changed the font slightly so that it was difficult to see the difference between an i and an l."
Stout explained to 15 ABC how difficult this scam was.
"We brought in some forensic experts as well as talking to the sheriff's department's forensic people, and they said that this is one of the more sophisticated scams that they have seen," Stout said.
15 ABC asked Stout how scary it is knowing that scams seem to continue to get worse and worse.
"In our situation they hacked into our emails and then sat there and waited for a large transaction to occur before they attacked, and so you just never know when you're being watched and when you're not, so it's very concerning," Stout said.
Despite the significant financial loss, Stout said the district has built up enough financial reserves to cover the loss and continue operating normally while serving the community.
The commissioner is now warning others to watch out for scams.
"It's growing more and more and getting more and more sophisticated, so everybody needs to take as many measures as they can to protect themselves," Stout said.
The Brazos County Sheriff's Office is investigating the case.
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