Brighton Recovers $348,000 From Fraudulent Automatic Clearing House Transaction
BRIGHTON, Colo. (CBS4) - The City of Brighton recovered $348,000 on Wednesday from a fraudulent Automatic Clearing House transaction. The city sent the ACH transaction to a bank on Monday, payable to a vendor involved in a construction project.
The bank notified the city on Tuesday about suspicious activity involving the transaction. The city immediately notified its insurance company along with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Brighton Police Department.
After an investigation, the bank recovered the money and returned it to the city on Wednesday morning.
"This incident is a good reminder of the prevalence of constant attempts at fraudulent activity," said Jane Bais DiSessa, Brighton City Manager. "We will continue to work with investigators and strengthen any safeguards to prevent this from happening in the future."
Banks use the Automatic Clearing House Network to handle direct deposits, bill payments, checks and cash transfers between businesses and individuals. In most cases, all a scammer needs to execute ACH fraud is an account number and bank routing number.
Officials in Brighton have not said how the fraud attempt was carried out. A spokesperson for the city said the investigation is ongoing and more information will be released soon.