Sources: Scammers posed as vendors for El Paso streetcar project and street resurfacing

New information on an online scam that duped the city of El Paso out of $3.3 million dollars.

ABC-7 learning the Camino Real Regional Mobility Authority was not the only target. A city department was also reportedly caught in the phishing scheme.

City officials confirm $3 million was paid to a person or group pretending to be a vendor working on the streetcar project.

But sources with knowledge of the investigation told ABC-7 $300,000 dollars was also paid to the wrong people for street resurfacing work.

City Manager Tommy Gonzalez spoke at a news conference addressing the scam.

“We want to assure the public, the businesses that the situation is under control,” Gonzalez said.

Words of reassurance following the news the city had fallen victim to an online scam involving millions of dollars.

While investigating a redirected $300,000 payment in early October the city found a second, much larger payment of nearly $2.9 million had also been wired to scammers.

Dr. Mark Sutter, the city’s chief financial officer, explained how the city reacted.

“We went back to doing paper checks instead of ACH (electronic) payments because we discovered the weak place was in the ACH payments. That is what had been misdirected,” Sutter said.

City officials said they have reviewed all other payments to make sure that nothing else from the city was compromised.

They plan to continue paying with checks until they can confirm their system is secure.

The city confirmed the $2.9 million dollar payment was made to someone posing as a legitimate vendor for the streetcar project.

It was made on behalf of the Camino Real Regional Mobility Authority, an agency of the state of Texas. El Paso is the agency’s fiscal agent.

Sources close to the investigation tell ABC-7 the $300,000 payment was made to a vendor the city thought was being paid for street resurfacing.

City Attorney Sylvia Borunda Firth addressed why the city waited weeks before sharing the information with the public.

“Law enforcement did not direct it, but they did advise that more discretion would allow for a better investigation and a better chance at recovery of the funds. So, there has been a couple of weeks delay in sharing information. But in that time, as you can see, we have recovered a substantial amount of the money,” Borunda Firth said.

So far, the city, working with the FBI and El Paso police, has been able to reclaim almost all of the $300,000 payment, but only about half of the $2.9 million ripped off.