[B] Sheriff's office scammed out of $16,000 [/B] [B] August 28, 2007 [/B] Heather Civil Florida Freedom News DeFUNIAK SPRINGS ? The Walton County Sheriff?s Office has been bilked out of $16,000 in payroll funds. The money went missing after an employee gave out sensitive bank account information via e-mail in June. Former Sheriff ?s Office Chief Financial Officer Marjorie Adams e-mailed payroll account information in response to what officials now know was a fraudulent e-mail masked as a message from Regions Bank. The Sheriff?s Office has accounts with Regions Bank in DeFuniak Springs. [B] Someone used the information given by Adams to take $22,000 in Sheriff?s Office payroll funds before officials caught on and closed the account,[/B] [B]according to Sheriff?s Office Capt. Linda Clemmons. Clemmons confirmed the bank has retrieved $6,000 of the missing money. It is unknown whether the rest will be found. [/B]Adams thought she was responding to a request for account information from Regions Bank, but the e-mail turned out to be fake, according to Clemmons. The true source of the e-mail is not known. The Sheriff?s Office has turned the case over to the FBI, Clemmons said. ?It?s an open investigation,? she said. Sheriff Ralph Johnson could not be reached for comment. Clemmons said Adams is no longer the CFO for the Sheriff?s Office but is still working there. This is the second time Adams has caused financial woes for the Sheriff?s Office. [B] The agency paid $21,323 in penalties to the IRS during the 2005 fiscal year because Adams failed on several occasions to file Sheriff ?s Office payroll taxes on time.[/B] She told the Daily News she was unsure of the deadline as she was filing the taxes. She said she worked overtime to pay the money back to the Sheriff?s Office. E-mails such as the one that fooled Adams are commonly used by scammers to get people to provide personal information, such as bank account numbers, Social Security numbers and passwords. Such e-mails often appear to come from banks and credit card companies, but they are not legitimate. :idontno: So far this has cost the taxpayers more than $40,000. Why in the world is there not better financial oversight? :bang: NEVER give out bank or social security information over the phone or via email!
