Here is an example where a student obtained purchase order forms from the Fort Worth School District and a vendor contact, and tried to order almost $10k in items, but was stopped by the alert vendor representative.
The article quotes a School District official who said "our controls worked" but it was actually the vendor who was suspicious about the new shipping address.
Note that the Fort Worth School District does have a hotline to report waste, fraud & abuse, which the Lake County School District does NOT.
vj
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Fort Worth school investigating how $9,833 order was made
By Alex Branch and Diane Smith
Star-Telegram staff writer
FORT WORTH -- The order form and fax cover sheet were from Dunbar High School. But whoever tried to buy almost $10,000 worth of computer equipment this month wasn't shopping on behalf of students and teachers.
Police and the Fort Worth school district are investigating how someone got the school's purchasing forms to place the fraudulent order, and whether they have done it before.
No arrests have been made, but school district investigators suspected a former student whose mother works at the school, according to a police report.
The telecommunications company to which the order was placed found it suspicious and did not fill it, said Clint Bond, a school district spokesman. However, the incident was worrisome to district leaders.
"When you have an obligation to protect the public's interest -- the public's money -- we are always concerned," Bond said. But "while we can't always stop people from dong things that circumvent our system, we are confident that we have systems in place that will prevent them from taking advantage."
The investigation started after a representative with Bottom Line Telecommunications red-flagged the purchase order and contacted the school district. The order was for $9,833 worth of equipment, including a system used for mass-copying DVDs. It was accompanied by the Dunbar paperwork but had an unfamiliar name, phone number and address written on it.
When the Bottom Line representative called the phone number, the person who answered admitted that the order was fraudulent, according to the police report. A Bottom Line representative could not be reached for comment Thursday.
School officials contacted the Police Department's fraud investigation unit Aug. 8, said Lt. Paul Henderson, a police spokesman. The investigation is ongoing.
School officials have launched an internal investigation but don't believe the scam has been tried before, Bond said. The district has internal and external auditing systems, a special investigations office and a hot line to report fraud, abuse or other illegal activity.
"We have checks and balances within the system," Bond said. "The fact that there is a police report is evidence that the system works."
Hot line
The Fort Worth school district's hot line for suspected illegal activity is 817-871-2112. Callers' phone numbers are not recorded by Caller ID, according to the school district.
[email protected]
Alex Branch, 817-390-7689
