El Paso Loses $3.2 Million In Scam – City Officials Acknowledge The Loss

City officials have admitted that they fell victim to an email scam that cost $3.2 million in city money. This money went straight to fraudulent bank accounts. Yesterday city officials stated that phishing emails caused two separate payments for a downtown streetcar project to be diverted to the fraudulent accounts.

The El Paso Times reported that city officials learned of the scam in early October and that it involved someone posing as a vendor to obtain payments. Authorities have recovered most of the money and now the city has started to issuing paper checks to vendors in the meantime.