CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa — A federal court ordered the forfeiture of roughly $375,000 in proceeds from a scam that targeted an Iowa business.
The United States District Court for the Northern District of Iowa entered the judgment Tuesday. The money came from a business email compromise scam where criminals impersonate company executives or vendors to trick employees into transferring money or clicking malicious links.
In this case, the scammer impersonated the Iowa company’s vendors and instructed an employee to direct a payment to a scammer-controlled bank account. The Iowa company, thinking it was paying real invoices as instructed, sent payments in mid-2022 totaling more than $800,000 to the scammer’s account. From there, the scammer transferred the funds to other bank accounts to make it difficult to track the stolen money.
The United States seized $372,583.77 of the fraud proceeds from a Wells Fargo bank account belonging to Manuel and Ibrahim Hazim. The scammer deposited the fraud proceeds into the Hazims’ account with a series of checks indicating in the memo line that they were for a “Mack Truck,” “procurement” and “payment.” The Iowa company reported the fraud to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center.
The Hazims claimed they did not know about the scam and were therefore the rightful owners of the money. They claimed the money was from a currency exchange in which an unknown source would deposit dollars directly into their Wells Fargo account and they would then wire Nigerian currency to a Nigerian broker. Investigation showed that the Hazims did not own or sell a Mack Truck or engage in any other legitimate business transaction with the individual who deposited the funds.
The District Court found that the money was involved in a crime and was therefore subject to being forfeited. It also found that the Hazims had not sworn to the truth of their claims as required by the law and thus could not show that they were innocent owners.
“Criminals continue to target Americans with email compromise scams,” said U.S. Attorney Leif Olson.
Olson said people can protect themselves by examining the addresses of incoming emails for differences from previous emails. He said to follow up in person or by phone to make sure requests are legitimate, especially when someone asks you to change where to send payment.
“If you or your company are targeted by one of these scams, report it to your bank, to law enforcement, and to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center,” Olson said. “We will use every available tool to track down scammers and recover the money they stole.”
According to the FBI, these scams cost businesses more than $55 billion from 2013 to 2023.
