Fort Lauderdale has managed to recover the $1.2 million it sent to a phishing scammer posing as a construction company back in September, officials announced Thursday, though no arrests have been made.
A city employee had sent the money to what they believed was Moss Construction, the company tasked with building the city’s new police headquarters, after the scammer sent a request for an Automated Clearing House electronic funds transfer. The scammer had filled out all of the paperwork and attached a blank check to the email.
“Excellent work from the police department,” Commissioner Steve Glassman told the Sun Sentinel Wednesday night ahead of the news conference. “I’m really pleased that worked out, and hopefully we’ll have some safeguards in place that this will never happen again.”
Commissioner John Herbst, a certified public accountant served as the city’s auditor for16 years, said Wednesday night that he had not heard about the announcement.
In late October, City Manager Greg Chavarria told the Sun Sentinel that the city had recovered half of the money, totaling $612,504.64, from a bank. He did not elaborate at the time on how the city went about recovering the money.
Moss Construction, the company whose identity was used, did not respond to requests for comment Wednesday. The company said back in September that it was also a victim of the scam.
“Malicious actors took advantage of our good name and publicly available information to attempt a scam,” a Moss spokesperson told the Sun Sentinel, deferring to the police for further comment.
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