(File photo/northeastNOW Staff)

By Aaron Schulze

Online Fraud

After Saskatoon fraud incident, City of Melfort confident appropriate security in place

Aug 16, 2019 | 5:00 PM

One day after the City of Saskatoon fell victim to a massive online fraud, the City of Melfort is confident they have the measures in place to prevent a similar situation.

The City of Saskatoon announced Thursday, Aug. 15 a fraudster electronically impersonated a construction company’s chief financial officer and asked for a change in banking information. City staff agreed and a payment of nearly $1 million went to the fraudster instead of the company.

Melfort’s Mayor Rick Lang said their working situation differs from Saskatoon in terms of electronic payments.

“Anytime we get a request of any kind for payment, it goes to the appropriate department for verification first and then it goes to the person who physically writes the cheques,” Lang said. “We don’t have any payments that are similar to the one that Saskatoon did in the form of an [electronic transfer]. All of our payments are cheques that are done at the clerk’s desk and then they’re sent out for payment. Before it gets to that stage, they’re all verified by the department.”

Because Melfort’s city hall is substantially smaller than Saskatoon’s, Lang said the city is able to stick with handwritten cheques.

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“Our clerk that writes the cheque is sitting at a desk two desks away is the city treasurer’s office,” he said. “If there would ever be a question of any kind, you would walk over two desks and ask that question. In Saskatoon, it’s probably floors and floors apart sometimes because of the volume that they would handle. I could see that their situation is certainly different than the one we’re in right now.”

The City of Melfort has yet to experience a similar case of fraud, although Lang believes the incident in Saskatoon will draw some discussions on whether they want to get into the realm of electronic payments.

“When we have our audit done by the accountants, they always come through with clear opinion about the process,” he said. “They have made suggestions from time to time as to how we can make sure everything is done with the utmost security in mind and to stop those types of things happening, or even have the potential to happen.

“I wouldn’t say that anything is impossible, but we feel very confident in our system, and those checks and double checks are currently happening within the City of Melfort.”

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aaron.schulze@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @SchulzePANow