County grapples with fraudulent transactions
At the Crawford County Finance Committee’s October and November meetings, Treasurer Deanne Lutz told the committee about three instances of fraud or issues with the county’s checking account.
In October, a check cut by the county for $1,252.82 to the Continental Battery Company in Dallas, Texas, was taken and altered by an unknown party.
“That got intercepted in the mail by somebody in Dallas, who took the entire check and changed the entire check — not only the payee but the amount,” Lutz said.
The check, which was sent for a purchase made by the highway department, was changed to $5,252.82 and deposited with mobile banking.
Lutz surmised that using mobile banking may have helped conceal the alterations made to the check.
The check was issued on September 11 and cashed on October 3. Seven days later, the county filed police and fraud reports.
“Within seven days, we were aware and handled it,” Lutz said. She said People’s State Bank gave the county its money back.
In November, the county detected an unauthorized Paypal transaction from the county’s checking account.
Lutz noted that the county does not use Paypal for any transactions; all departments have credit cards issued to them for expenses.
The county filed paperwork to block the withdrawal, and People’s State Bank discovered one of their customers “was really close in their account number to ours,” according to Lutz.
Shortly thereafter, two separate T-Mobile bills were charged from the county’s account. The total for the two charges was approximately $700.
“I went and filed the paperwork, and they’re going to deny it and give us our money back,” Lutz said.
She also said the account attempting to charge the county for the phone bills did not have a name associated with it, unlike the Paypal transaction.
“It’s not really fraudulent; it’s bank-activity issues, I would say,” said Lutz. “We have 60 days to dispute anything, but right now, we’re really watching our account and catching it instantly.”
Fraud is a hot topic right now, especially since Dubuque County lost approximately $500,000 in a purported digital scam.
“I don’t know if you’re better off going digitally or the old-fashioned way because they’re out there taking it either way,” said Finance Committee Chair Gary Koch.
