Hamner
Even people who enforce laws aren’t safe from being the target of a scam.
Earlier this month, Johnson County Prosecutor Lance Hamner got an unexpected email. The county auditor’s office emailed to ask him if he was trying to change his direct deposit information.
Hamner thought this was weird and knew he wasn’t planning to change banks, but he checked with his wife just to make sure. She confirmed there were no plans to switch banks.
At that point, Hamner knew something was wrong. He told the auditor’s office he was not trying to change his deposit and alerted the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office to the scam, he said.
“You wouldn’t expect someone to go after the prosecutor, but they did. This is the guy who would put them in jail,” Hamner said.
The request to change Hamner’s direct deposit account came from a strange email that appeared to be associated with Hamner but was not. It is from a Gmail account that the sheriff’s office has now subpoenaed to attempt to find information on the would-be scammer, said Maj. Damian Katt, who is investigating the case.
Katt and Hamner both credit the internal controls that the auditor’s office and the county’s information technology department have with helping thwart the scam. Because of county policy, the auditor’s office did not respond to the original email and instead reached out to Hamner to authenticate the request via his official county email, they said.
It is unclear if the attempted scammer will be caught, but the hope is to find information through the subpoena. These types of scams are typically perpetrated with multiple layers of anonymity, so it can be hard to trace it back to a specific person, Katt said.
“We do our best to look into these as deeply as possible and sometimes we get lucky,” he said.
This is a new type of scam attempt county officials hadn’t seen before, Katt said.
“Fortunately, our county is on top of it and we have checks and balances to help prevent this kind of fraudulent activity,” he said. “It is pretty rare when someone from the county is targeted. This is a bit of a unique spin on it, to try to get someone to change their deposit.”
Katt said it is important to pause and double-check who you are responding to when replying to emails, particularly when money is involved.
Hamner also encourages people to investigate something if it doesn’t feel right. Whether it is something like this or a scammer pretending to be a family member in trouble, it is important to stay logical and look into the situation before acting, he said.
For more information on how to stay safe from financial scams visit johnsoncountysheriff.com/financial-crime-resources/.
