Scammers attempt to defraud City of West Memphis

Scammers attempt to defraud City of West Memphis

Stolen check for $157,000 caught after suspicious transaction

By John Rech

ne ws @ theeveningtimes .com

Ripped off in Dallas again. City Treasurer Frank Martin reported a city utility check was stolen at a Dallas post office last week. Four years ago the same thing happened at the same post office. Martin said he placed a stop payment on the altered check and notified federal authorities about the attempted theft by forgery of $157,000.

The utility check was intended for Entergy Arkansas but was stolen out of the post office. The thieves got busy duplicating the check and altering the payee trying get hold of the cash. The city treasurer outlined the previous check forgeries and said the latest attempt followed the same pattern as in 2014. Martin explained what happened back then.

“They scanned it and changed numbers and

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“They scanned it and changed numbers… It ended up not costing us anything because of how Fidelity helped us with the other banks.” — West Memphis City Treasurer Frank Martin1 CHECK____________________

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cashed them through Allied Bank and Bank of America electronically for $450,000,” said Martin.

“We hassled with the FBI, and the Dallas Police. It ended up not costing us anything because of how Fidelity helped us, with the other banks. It happened again.”

Martin said it happened again November 28 out of the same post office, but a bank in Alabama got suspicious right away when the money showed up for a brand new account.

“They called us, and I said it would be a stop payment,” said Martin. “The whole thing took just about an hour.”

One thing connected this forgery to the ones in 2014.

“It happened again November 28, out of the same Dallas post office box,” said Martin. “They got a $ 157,000 check to Entergy Arkansas,” said Martin. “They opened a brand new account electronically through a bank in Alabama. They scanned the check and sent it to the new account where the bank got suspicious right away. When they scanned it they changed the payee, same account same check number. They called us and we called Fidelity and put a stop payment on the check.”

Martin said he'd tighten safeguards again with a positive pay plan for the bank. Under the plan the bank was required to cross check each item against a city made list of its issued checks.

“It costs the city about $2,400 per month,” said Martin. “We are already doing it for most of our accounts. Accounts payable we do about 1,200 checks per month and payroll we about 1,000 checks a month. We have to do it two days before the check is issued.”

Martin noted the latest scam was caught early on before it got to local safeguards but indicted less active accounts like this utility fund did not have the same fence in place.

“It’s a paper trail.,” said Martin. “I did not have the utility doing it, because it was just 45 checks per month and its quicker than if we had positive pay. We may have to change that.

We had this all handled with in a hour. I’m not taking chances.”