科罗拉多城被桥梁建设诈骗了100万美元

科罗拉多城被桥梁建设诈骗了100万美元

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.

根据一份新的报告，伊利镇被骗走了100多万美元，因为它把本来要给一家桥梁建设公司的钱汇到了一个假账户上。

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.

《丹佛邮报》(the Denver Post)援引伊利镇(Erie Town)管理员迈克尔·弗莱明(Michael Fleming)周一发来的一封电子邮件称，伊利向一个伪装成SEMA Construction公司员工的不知名人士汇去了超过101万美元。

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.

该报道称，这名骗子于10月21日在该镇网站上填写了一份表格，要求改变该公司的付款方式。

“Specifically, the change was to receive payments via electronic funds transfer rather than by check,” Fleming’s email blast said.

弗莱明的电子邮件称:“具体来说，这一变化是通过电子资金转账而不是支票接收付款。”

“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.”

“尽管城镇工作人员检查了表格上的一些信息以确保其准确性，但他们并没有通过SEMA构建来验证提交的信息的真实性;他们接受了表格并更新了付款方式。”

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.

根据报告,四天后，该镇处理了两笔付款到一个没有得到SEMA授权的账户——总共是七位数。

“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.

邮件中说，“一旦这些钱进入了那个账户，实施欺诈的人就会把钱通过电汇转移到国外。”

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.

据报道，直到11月5日，当地官员才知道发生了什么，直到当地银行通知他们可能存在欺诈。当官员们就付款事宜联系SEMA时，该公司表示，他们没有收到这笔钱，也从未要求改变付款方式。

There is no evidence to indicate that any town employee was involved in criminal activity or had criminal intent.

没有证据表明任何城镇雇员参与了犯罪活动或有犯罪意图。

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.

该镇的财务主任已经从其网站上删除了骗子使用的表格，并停止通过电子资金转移支付供应商，除非经过适当的验证。

“The town is actively using other information gleaned from the investigations to identify potential risk and to mitigate those risks,” Fleming’s email said.

弗莱明在邮件中说:“该镇正在积极利用从调查中收集到的其他信息，以识别潜在的风险，并减轻这些风险。”

The town, local police and the FBI are working together to investigate the case, the local paper reported.

据当地报纸报道，该镇、当地警方和FBI正在合作调查此案。

Construction began on the bridge last January and it was completed 10 months later.

这座桥于去年1月动工，10个月后竣工。