MONROE CITY, Mo. (WGEM) – A hacking operation has cost Monroe City $177,632, according to Mayor Jerry Potterfield.
Potterfield said cloned emails were sent from overseas operators to the city clerk requesting payment for services performed by Klingner & Associates and Martine Construction.
“There were several red flags in the email correspondence going back and forth that were not picked up on,” Potterfield said.
The mayor said one wire transfer payment was sent in January and two in February. One of the February payments was rejected, which alerted city officials to the issue.
The mayor said city officials have contacted the FBI and an investigation has started, but the city does not expect to recover any of the funds at this time.
“It became real apparent that we were negligible [sic] in our payment system. But the payments already been sent. You send out a wire transfer, you might as well just kiss it goodbye because it’s not coming back,” Potterfield said.
He said city officials also reached out to their insurance provider. However, he said, “Due to the nature of the loss, we do not have a valid claim and should expect no payment from them for the loss.”
Potterfield said originally, a large sum of the money was supposed to go toward a city sewer project but that project is on hold now because of the loss.
According to the mayor, the issue will be discussed in a public session at the next city council meeting which will be Thursday, March 10 at 6 p.m.
Copyright…
