Pittsburgh loses nearly $1 million after scammers impersonate construction firm and city staff

In February, Pittsburg, California, sent $913,000 to what it believed was Discovery Builders Inc., the contractor for the Dream Courts recreation complex, after scammers altered the builder’s email address by inserting an extra lowercase “l.” The perpetrators also accessed the email of Sara Bellafronte, an assistant to the city manager, and posed as her to direct a finance employee to update the bank account information.

Within days the funds were routed through a complex chain of accounts, prompting the FBI to secure 18 search warrants covering 116 accounts and trace the money to two suspects in the United States and one in Nigeria. Authorities froze the receiving account, allowing recovery of about $696,000, while roughly $218,000 remains missing and may be covered by insurance. An Illinois man who handled part of the money appears to have been an unwitting participant, converting $217,000 into bitcoin.

Discovery Builders President Louis Parsons said the company did not blame the city and later collected the full $913,000 after checks were mailed. Mayor Dionne Adams said the incident exposed security gaps, leading to stricter verification procedures and staffing changes.