Galveston County scammed out of $525,000 after company posed as vendor

GALVESTON, Texas (KTRK) -- "It was a sad and stressful several hours," said Kevin Walsh, the Galveston County Treasurer.

That's what the city official is saying after he says they were scammed out of more than $525,000.

The money was slated to pay for road projects in San Leon.

Walsh says Galveston County received an email from a scammer posing as the road contract company. The "fake" vendor said they had changed their bank account number and told the county to send future payments to the new account number.

Galveston County sent a digital payment to the so-called new account, not realizing it was fake.

They realized the payment for the roads was fake once the real company called.

"More days went by when they didn't receive the check and thereby a phone call was placed to Galveston County, thereby starting the process, alerting us there was a problem," said Walsh.

Galveston County is hoping the bank that deposited the payment into the account will help them recoup the money.

They are also examining practices and procedures to ensure this doesn't happen again.

Walsh says it does not appear that any other payments were sent to scammers posing as contractors or vendors.