Chamber wire fraud has happy ending

Lessons to be learned

by Mark Reaman

It took a while but the bank-wire fraud scam that almost cost the Crested Butte-Mt. Crested Butte Chamber of Commerce more than $19,000 last winter has had a happy ending. On Monday, May 16, the missing money was re-deposited into the chamber bank account.

“I cannot emphasize how great the local marshals and the Crested Butte Bank were in this whole process,” said outgoing chamber executive director Dave Ochs. “The quick action by the police and the bank froze the funds and it all ended up working out, which we have been told is very unusual. We are extremely happy and super excited.”

The fraud was initiated in early March when chamber bookkeeper Leah Fischer received a fake email. The email looked very real and said that Ochs was requesting an urgent wire transfer. Fischer said she figured the request was for an event sponsorship. She sent the wire off just under the time deadline. When she texted Ochs that she fulfilled his request she reviewed the email correspondence and noticed some subtle discrepancies in the text from what she normally receives from Ochs. It soon became clear that something was not right and Fischer called the bank to try to stop the wire.

Autumn Brown at the bank, along with chief marshal Tom Martin and officer James Beda, went into overdrive to stop the wire. At the suggestion of the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, they put out a “fraud alert” and got ahead of the wire transfer process at a branch office of the Bank of America in Maryland. Because the wire had been sent from the local bank, a contention period had to be implemented so the receiver of the wire could contest the stoppage. Not surprisingly, even after several months that did not happen.

“Good people working together saved us that money,” reiterated Ochs. “It was a great example of a small community coming together to prevent what, for us, would have been a major hit. The system worked and it was great.”

As a result of the incident, the chamber reviewed and changed some of its monetary policies. Wiring is not allowed, more checks and balances have been implemented and there are fewer people on the signatory accounts.

“It was a good lesson for us that thankfully turned out okay and it is a good lesson for all our members and every business in the community,” said Ochs. “Even in this idyllic small community, we are exposed to threats from the outside world and need to be very aware.”