MARSHFIELD, WI (WSAU) — The Marshfield School District is working with local police and the FBI to track down scammers who took the district for over $600,000.
In a press release, Superintendent Ryan Christianson says they received an electronic communication from what appeared to be a vendor on May 23rd asking the school to update its bank information. The form was returned, and a few weeks later some questionable transactions began showing up in the account.
“A big chunk of money was sent to a fraudulent bank account,” said Christianson. “It was May 30th before we detected the irregularity.”
That same day the district contacted law enforcement and Forward Bank of Marshfield, who both sprung into action quickly to help stop any further damage. Additionally, a Florida Credit Union flagged a half-million dollar transaction as suspicious and halted the money and any further activity with the account.
Christianson says the district has gotten its initial half-million dollars back, but around $160,000 remains missing.
The district then released the information on Thursday in hopes of preventing others from falling into the same trap. “This serves as an example of how diligent scammers are. Despite your best efforts to stay on top of these things, sometimes things slip through.
“We are continuing to look at our processes here in the business office, looking at what we need to do. We need to have two sets of eyes on things that come through, and really scrutinize all correspondence we encounter,” added Christianson.
He went on to say that the problem could have likely been avoided with a simple phone call to the vendor to verify that the inquiry was legitimate. “That’s another step we would encourage everyone to put into practice. A good old fashioned phone goes a long way to prevent things like this from happening.”
Christianson says the district is still working with the FBI and other officials to track down the remaining money.
