BOONE, N.C. — Employees of Rodgers Builders were hard at work on Appalachian State's new Health Science College, but according to federal court papers, the company didn't get a nearly $2 million payment in December.
Someone posing as their Finance Technician emailed Appalachian State with new routing information for a bogus bank account.
"We've got to be really careful,” said Lauri Conkling, a visitor. “Where are we sending our money? Do they check to see if it was the same place as the previous month?"
Outside of the construction project, people were stunned to learn news of the costly mistake.
The university confirmed it was a victim of fraudulent intervention.
In a statement, Paul Forte, vice chancellor for business affairs at Appalachian State said:
"As a result of the quick action of Appalachian staff and the diligence of law enforcement, we expect to recover the vast majority of the stolen monies."
Court documents show that Appalachian State University officials were not aware of the error until Rodgers Builders contacted them eight days after the mistaken money transfer for non-payment.
Federal investigators moved quickly to seize the missing money from the bogus account and others where large sums had been transferred.
The FBI has recovered more than $1.5 million.
Students at Appalachian State said the scam is an important reminder for everyone to be careful when emailing any financial information.
"I think it is crazy that they wouldn't have caught it and that that could have happened,” Andrea Stitzel said.
"Everyone at the university, and the fact that they did this over email, they definitely need to take more measures," Morgan Carlson said.
Any arrests are unknown at this point. Channel 9 reached out to Rodgers Builder, but have not heard back.
The new college is on schedule to be finished in July of 2018.
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