Scammers draining city funds
UPDATE 19/08 - Townsville City Council fallen victim to about $294,000 worth of sham invoices from scammers.
The city is the latest to admit it was swindled in what appears to be a statewide fraud scam targeting local governments.
Police have been alerted after council staff realised they had made the payments to a shonky civil engineering contractor.
The city joins other major Queensland councils including Ipswich, Logan, Moreton Bay, the Sunshine Coast and Bundaberg, who have all been targeted in recent weeks.
ORIGINAL 17/08 Brisbane City Council has lost more than $450,000 through phoney invoices over the past month alone.
Lord Mayor Graham Quirk the city is unlikely to recoup the funds from nine payments made to scammers since July 13.
“It's something I'm pretty angry about, it's a case of just over $450,000 that ratepayers have been robbed of... through what appears to be a sophisticated and targeted scam,” he told reporters.
Cr Quirk said the scammers sent fake invoices from phoney email addresses.
”They were payments that should've gone to a professional services provider but have gone to a scam account which was set up through a process which the scammers used,” he said.
“I've called in Deloitte to get them to do an investigation.
“I'll be making the results of that investigation public.”
“Other entities like the Queensland Audit Office and the Queensland Police Service and even the CCC at this stage are engaged.
“I'm hoping obviously that we get money back for ratepayers but just knowing the way these scammers work, I'm not holding out a lot of hope.”