$650,000 missing after vendor payment scam hits Pender County

PENDER COUNTY, NC (WWAY) — Pender County officials say they are the victim of a financial fraud scheme involving fraudulent changes to vendor payment information.

County officials said a vendor notified the county on Friday, Dec. 12, that multiple invoice payments had not been received. An internal investigation later revealed that in September, an outside party impersonating the vendor successfully requested a change to banking details used for Electronic Funds Transfer payments.

Officials said the fraudulent activity resulted in a loss of approximately $650,000.

A manual audit of all other banking information change requests is currently underway. The county said that no customer or resident information was released or involved in the incident.

Pender County said it is cooperating with local, state and federal law enforcement agencies as the investigation continues. Officials said efforts are underway to recover the funds.

The county said no additional information will be released until the investigation is complete.