During the special called Monday, Feb. 17 meeting, the Dublin City Council unanimously voted to a reimbursement of $20,000 of $44,663 stolen from the city in an online phishing scam in August of 2024.
Dublin Police Chief Cameron Ray reported the fraud started after the city was contacted by someone claiming to be a vendor who had used a deceptively similar email address to an existing address which does business with the city.
The city sent payment to this fraudulent contact instead of the agency owed payment for work at the City Park. When the agency contacted the city about payment staff believed had already been paid, they realized what had been done.
The fraudster started an account identical to the proper agency’s email address except they replaced a lowercase ‘M’ with ‘RN’ so in the address ‘m’ became ‘rn’ and the city didn’t notice the difference.
Ray cited several other cities which fell victim to similar scams including El Paso, which lost a reported $3.2 million.
”Fortunately, we were not hit for that amount,” Ray said. “More fortunately, we were able to recover a portion of the funds.”
Ray said DPD Detective Nanci Wilson was able to identify a third person who had received the funds, but through contact, she was able to determine that this recipient was also being scammed into being an intermediary for getting the funds to the scammers (believed to be in another country).
Councilmember Nancy Williams asked about criminal charges and Ray responded that any suit filed after the reimbursement would be civil.
Detective Wilson said she spoke to the third part several times and assured she was a victim herself.
Ray said there was no breach found in the city’s system and that steps were being taken to ensure it would not happen again.
City Manager Bobby Mendez also cited more oversight in the city’s checking system where any differences are flagged to city staff for review. The system already caught an instance where the amount on a drafted check was changed by the recipient.
Councilmembers also voted on an agreement with Dublin Chamber of Commerce to waive alcohol permit fees for events up to April 1, 2026. (Councilmember/ Chamber of Commerce President Nancy Williams abstained.)
Vendors selling alcohol at events that allow it will still submit applications with the city and Dublin PD will be able to review and ensure that vendors are properly licensed and doing everything right.
The meeting ended with a closed session after which no action was taken. In calling for agenda items, councilmember Sammy Moore asked to review square footage regulations and for the council to consider candidates for the Planning and Zoning board with one position open and another possible after the resignation of Paul Gaudette and Bo Kabala filing for election for the City Council.