{"id":2262613,"date":"2024-06-07T19:18:02","date_gmt":"2024-06-07T23:18:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/california-city-scammed-out-of-600000-because-it-didnt-follow-its-own-rules\/"},"modified":"2024-06-07T19:25:16","modified_gmt":"2024-06-07T23:25:16","slug":"california-city-scammed-out-of-600000-because-it-didnt-follow-its-own-rules","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/california-city-scammed-out-of-600000-because-it-didnt-follow-its-own-rules\/","title":{"rendered":"California city loses $600,000 due to non-compliance with its rules"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">20<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fcalifornia-city-scammed-out-of-600000-because-it-didnt-follow-its-own-rules%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2262613&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p><\/a> said. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n<p>In 2020, the city of Fresno, California lost over $600,000 to a phishing\u2063 scam due to \u200cemployees not following city policy, as revealed by a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/georgia-grand-jury-report-exposes-fulton-county-prosecutor-as-an-election-integrity-denier\/\" title=\"Georgia Grand Jury Report: Fulton County Prosecutor Denies Election Integrity\">grand jury \u2063report<\/a>. Construction of a new\u2063 police substation in\u200b southeast Fresno was underway and the contractor requested payment through physical\u200b checks. However, \u2062the Finance Department received an email from the perpetrator of the scam, posing as \u2063an employee\u2064 of the construction\u2062 company, requesting payment through an\u2062 electronic\u200c transfer. The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/state-department-urges-us-citizens-to-leave-ukraine-will-reduce-us-embassy-staff\/\" title=\"State Department Urges US Citizens To Leave Ukraine, Will Reduce US Embassy Staff\">department authorized<\/a> two payments totaling $613,737 to the\u2064 perpetrator, leading \u2064to the discovery of the scam when the construction company threatened to stop\u200b working.\u200b This information \u200cwas reported\u200c by the San Joaquin Valley\u200d Sun.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>The city of Fresno, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/california\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>California<\/a>, lost more than $600,000 to a phishing <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/scams\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>scam<\/a> in 2020, a loss that could have been avoided if Finance Department employees had followed city policy, a Fresno County grand jury <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fresno.courts.ca.gov\/system\/files\/general\/grand-jury-report-3.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>report<\/a> revealed on Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>Construction began on a new police substation in southeast Fresno in April 2019, according to the report. The contractor requested to be paid by physical checks.<\/p>\n<p>The Fresno Finance Department received an email in January 2020 from the perpetrator of the scam, who the city assumed was an employee of the construction company, requesting to receive payments through an automated clearing house transfer instead. In the following weeks, the department authorized two electronic payments to the perpetrator totaling $613,737.<\/p>\n<p>The city learned about the scam when the construction company threatened to walk off the job over lack of payment, the <em>San Joaquin Valley Sun <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/sjvsun.com\/news\/fresno\/grand-jury-fresno-could-have-avoided-650k-phishing-scam\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Investigations later revealed that the perpetrators of the scam were part of an international organized crime ring.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAt no time did the perpetrators submit fraudulent invoices,\u201d the report said. \u201cIt appears they simply scoured the internet for large construction contracts being awarded by local governments. Using real data gleaned from the City Council agendas and minutes, they were able to identify this particular contract, used what information was publicly available, and initiated a successful phishing scheme on unsuspecting city employees.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The report revealed city staff failed to pick up on the fraud despite numerous signs. The fraudulent email addresses ended in \u201c.us,\u201d while the contractor\u2019s had ended in \u201c.com,\u201d\u00a0and the scammers gave multiple bank account numbers across different states.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis, too, did not alert city staff to the fraud,\u201d according to the report.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/from-anti-semitic-agitator-to-democratic-power-broker-the-preposterous-resurrection-of-al-sharpton\/\" title=\"From Anti-Semitic Agitator to Democratic Power Broker: The Preposterous Resurrection of Al Sharpton\">grand jury found<\/a> that Finance Department employees had failed to follow policies that would have prevented the fraud. The staff had not authenticated the automated clearing house form to ensure that the \u201cform submitted by the vendor [was] actually from the vendor of record.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>They had also neglected to have a different staff member review the transfer, a step that was required for all \u201clarge disbursements.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The grand jury wrote that the electronic payment procedure was \u201clargely unwritten at the time of the incident.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/washingtonexaminer.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title><strong>CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cTraining for the handling of these important money transfers was conducted verbally, and it appears that not all Finance Department employees were properly trained,\u201d the report read.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWithout strict observation and enforcement of new and existing internal controls,\u201d it added, \u201cthere is a high probability of similar losses in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In 2020, Fresno, California, was defrauded of over $600,000 due to a phishing scam, a preventable loss had Finance Department staff adhered to city policies, a Fresno County grand jury report disclosed. Additionally, construction of a new police substation in southeast Fresno commenced in April 2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3192,"featured_media":2262614,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/AP19171078227771.jpg.optimal.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2262613","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/AP19171078227771.jpg.optimal.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2262613","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3192"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2262613"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2262613\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2262614"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2262613"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2262613"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2262613"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}