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Scammers Target Sugar City

Update: the city was able to recover nearly all of the money!

Scammers hit the city

Ugh....during our last council meeting, we were informed that scammers managed to steal over $77,000 from the city. The fake invoice for the recent road work in the city was nearly perfect--it had the correct dates, amounts, etc. The only difference was one letter in the business email address. The wire transfer took place and went to the scammers instead of the authentic contractors.

I saw an article posted on East Idaho News about it. In one of the comments, someone suggested the city might be trying to cover up the scam. No, the city isn't trying to cover it up for some reason. Unless you consider talking openly about it during the public city council meeting (streamed on Facebook and available on Zoom) to be "covering it up." The city's business is the public's business (and vice-versa) and is carried on in the open.

The sad truth is we got taken by some clever, unscrupulous people. The council, the mayor and clerk, and other city employees are devastated and are taking action to try to recover the funds if possible. We are also implementing procedures which should eliminate such a problem in the future.

The city budget will recover. We have some possible funds available for unexpected budgetary issues and there may be an avenue to take with the city's insurer. We take the budgeting of the city seriously and will do all we can to safeguard the city funds and to use them wisely. We encourage all who are interested in the budget and city council business in general to attend meetings and provide input.


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