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Colorado town duped out of $1M in bridge construction scam
 [NYPOST] Someone had a bridge to sell ... and this Colorado town fell for the scam.The town of Erie was duped out of more than $1 million when it sent money meant for a bridge construction company to a fake account, according to a new report. Erie sent just over $1.01 million to an unknown person posing as an employee of SEMA Construction, the company behind the building of the Erie Parkway Bridge, The Denver Post reported, citing a Monday email blast from Erie Town Administrator Michael Fleming. The scammer had completed a form on the town’s website Oct. 21 requesting a change in how the company would receive payments for the work, the outlet reported. "Specifically, the change was to receive payments via electronic funds transfer rather than by check," Fleming’s email blast said. "Although town staff checked some of the information on the form for accuracy, they did not verify the authenticity of the submission with SEMA Construction; they accepted the form and updated the payment method." Four days later, the town processed two payments to an account not authorized by SEMA ‐ totaling the entire seven-figure amount, according to the report. "Once the payments were in that account, the perpetrators of this fraud sent the money via wire transfer out of the country," the email blast said. Town officials were unaware of what had happened until its bank notified them of potential fraud on Nov. 5, according to the report. When officials contacted SEMA regarding the payments, the company said they did not receive it and never requested a payment method change. So on Nov. 15, the town sent two checks to the actual company for its work on the bridge. The funds came from a transportation impact fund, which has enough of a balance to temporarily cover the loss pending an insurance claim, Fleming said in the blast. There is no evidence to indicate that any town employee was involved in criminal activity or had criminal intent. The town’s finance director has since removed the form used by the scammer from its website ‐ and stopped paying vendors through electronic funds transfer unless appropriately verified. "The town is actively using other information gleaned from the investigations to identify potential risk and to mitigate those risks," Fleming’s email said. The town, local police and the FBI are working together to investigate the case, the local paper reported. Construction began on the bridge last January and it was completed 10 months later. Posted by: Fred 2020-01-02 |
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