Hunter
08/29/24
The City of Swisher is out tens of thousands of dollars after paying a scammer posing as a city contractor.
The story was first reported by KCRG-TV.
Swisher City Clerk Shelley Annis told the City Council in a July 16 special meeting that she received an email July 3 from an email address that appeared to belong to HR Green, a Cedar Rapids-based engineering and consulting company that the city has been working with. The email had a copy of a real invoice the city had received about a week earlier from HR Green for $33,000. But this time the email asked the clerk to pay the invoice by an electronic funds transfer, rather than paying with a check.
The transfer was processed July 9th, but Annis double-checked the legitimacy of the email and found the email address was slightly different than the one they had on file.
The Johnson County Sheriff’s Office is investigating the incident but the city clerk said it’s unlikely they’ll be able to recover the lost funds. The City’s insurance will cover the loss after a $10,000 deductible.