Edmonds School District Accidentally Sends $2.7 Million Check To Scammer

A school district in Washington state says it fell victim to a phishing scam that nearly cost taxpayers millions of dollars.

KOMO reports that Edmonds School District accidentally sent a $2.7 million check meant for a contractor rebuilding Spruce Elementary School in Lynnwood to the wrong address. The scammer posed as the contractor's CFO and sent the district an email back in March, according to a district spokesperson on Monday (June 6).

When someone tried cashing the check, the bank was able to intercept it and get the money back, district officials say. Now Lynnwood Police is investigating this as felony theft.

“This was shocking. This is something we’d not ever dealt with before,” Spokesperson Harmony Weinberg says. "We are grateful for all the law enforcement, grateful for the bank for catching this and realizing this was kind of an odd request for someone to do this."

Edmonds School District also swore to beef up its technology and scam protection protocols following the incident.

“Our business and finance department is looking into the protocols we have in place to protect us from situations like this and also look into strengthening those even more,” Weinberg adds.