Phishing scammer makes off with $1.2 million. The victim: Fort Lauderdale.

Fort Lauderdale might be out $1.2 million after sending money to a scammer pretending to work for a local construction firm, City Manager Greg Chavarria confirmed on Wednesday night.

Chavarria sent out an alert to city commissioners by email as soon as he found out.

“Someone sent a request for an ACH payment (Automated Clearing House electronic funds transfer) pretending to be Moss Construction,” Chavarria wrote. “The scammer filled out the paperwork and had a blank check attached.”

An employee who works in the division responsible for paying city vendors checked the names and they matched corporate records, Chavarria said.

The payment was made on Sept. 14, but the issue was not discovered until Wednesday.

The Fort Lauderdale Police Department is investigating the incident.

Meanwhile, the city’s bank is working to get the money back, but it will take at least a week, Chavarria said.

Moss Construction won the contract to build Fort Lauderdale’s new police headquarters but was apparently a victim, too, according to a company spokesperson.

“Malicious actors took advantage of our good name and publicly available information to attempt a scam,” a Moss spokesperson said on Thursday. “This is a fraud case that is being actively investigated by the city of Fort Lauderdale officials and police. We refer all calls to the Fort Lauderdale Police Department.”

Fort Lauderdale Police Detective Ali Adamson said an investigation is underway.

“On Thursday, September 14th, the city made a payment of $1.2 million dollars, believing it to be a legitimate bill from Moss Construction,” Adamson wrote. “It was later learned the request for payment was fraudulent. This is an active investigation and we will be working with all appropriate law enforcement agencies to determine exactly what occurred.”

Mayor Dean Trantalis was taken aback when a South Florida Sun Sentinel reporter called to get his reaction.

“This is news to me,” he said Wednesday night. “I guess we have to be as cautious as we can.”

Trantalis said he was hopeful the city would get its money back.

“Because it was caught so quickly, the bank should be able to recapture that money,” he said. “Wire transfers take awhile to settle from bank to bank.”

On Thursday, Commissioner John Herbst said he has already contacted City Auditor Patrick Reilly and asked him to look into what went wrong.

“I have already told the city auditor to drop everything and audit this incident,” Herbst said. “We need to evaluate the internal controls and how they went wrong.”

Commissioner Steve Glassman says the city needs to improve its system of checks and balances to make sure it never happens again.

“We need to have a more foolproof system in place,” Glassman said. “I know there’s an investigation going on right now, and I’m sure that will uncover a lot. I’m still waiting for all the details. I’m looking forward to learning what went wrong.”

Chris Wallace, a financial consultant for local governments, says the faster you discover the problem, the better.

“The earlier you detect it, the more likely you can get the bank to claw the money back,” Wallace said. “The longer the delay, the more likely the criminal can move the money out and take off with it.”

One way to protect against this kind of fraud is to call the company to make sure it’s a legitimate request for payment, Wallace said.

“You need to call to make sure it’s them (requesting payment),” Wallace said.

Susannah Bryan can be reached at sbryan@sunsentinel.com. Follow me on X @Susannah_Bryan