We are Walz & Krenzer, a manufacturing company based in Oxford that designs and builds watertight doors for the marine industry. In September, we were deliberately targeted, deceived, and financially attacked through a calculated email scam that drained more than $103,000 from our business.
This wasn’t an accident. This was fraud.
It began on September 15, when we received what appeared to be a legitimate email from one of our subcontractors. The message claimed there had been a change in banking information and requested updated payment details. Everything about the email looked routine — except it wasn’t real.
We now know the email was a phishing attack.
By the time our bank flagged the transaction as suspicious, the damage was already done. When we contacted the subcontractor directly, we were told bluntly: the email was fake. It never came from them.
Only then did we notice the detail that nearly cost us everything — the sender’s email address was just slightly different from the real subcontractor’s address. One small change. One massive consequence.
Despite the bank’s efforts, only $1,062.94 could be recovered. The rest — $101,937.06 — was gone.
Investigators later traced the stolen money to an account connected to Daniel Boenke, a 70-year-old man from Gainesville, Georgia, and to an LLC he registered last year. Bank records show the full $103,000 was deposited into that account on September 19.
Then came the withdrawals.
Over the next several days, the money was pulled out in chunks from multiple bank branches across Georgia — a clear attempt to move fast and avoid detection. Surveillance footage captured a man who appears to be Daniel Boenke making those withdrawals. Cellphone data confirmed he was physically present at the locations.
As if that wasn’t enough, investigators found that shortly after draining the account, Boenke accessed a Bitcoin ATM — a move police say is commonly used to launder stolen money and pass it along to other criminals.
Phone records show Boenke was in contact with multiple numbers before and after the withdrawals, strongly suggesting this was not a solo operation. This was coordinated. Organized. Intentional.
Police stated plainly that the evidence indicates the account holder knowingly received the fraudulent deposit and deliberately withdrew the funds to conceal the crime.
Let’s be clear: this wasn’t a mistake. This wasn’t confusion. This was theft.
As of now, no additional arrests have been announced. Daniel Boenke is being held on a $125,000 bond, charged with first-degree larceny.
For us, the loss is real. The disruption is real. And the anger is real.
This scam didn’t just steal money — it attacked trust, exploited routine business operations, and proved how dangerous a single deceptive email can be.