Procurement Fraud Alert

A neighbouring authority has been the target of an attempted procurement fraud. The Fraudster has contacted at least 4 companies around the country posing as their Chief Executive using Council branded stationery to place orders for high value electrical items. The matter has been referred to the police who have opened an investigation.

The email address being using in the scam is team@councilnamegov-procurement.com. The initial correspondence received by the companies was an email requesting a quote for goods and upon receipt of the quote an order was placed using the Authority’s branded stationery and requesting 30 day payment terms.

The invoice address was shown as the Council’s main civic centre however the delivery address was an address in Sheffield for the attention of Jeff Carlson later amended to the Council’s name.

The attempted fraud only came to light as the suppliers were suspicious that the email address was not a .gov.uk address and also that a 30 day credit term had been requested and this prompted them to contact the Council to query the order.

All staff involved in the certification of invoices for payment should take particular care to ensure that they are bone fide, an official order was placed and the goods received before passing the invoice to the payments team for payment. If in doubt do not pay the invoice refer it to our fraud officer whose details are below.

If any officer is contacted by a supplier who has any suspicions about an order received they should contact Ian Evans, Fraud Officer, on 01639 686579/07974 631916 who will make further enquiries with the supplier.