Apparently, scamming the city out of 2.9 million dollars is pretty simple. Just send them a bill!

That's kinda what happened and now El Paso and the Camino Real Regional Mobility Authority (CRRMA) are out $2.9 million bucks. The EP Times reports a Downtown street car project vendor sent the city a bill and the city paid up but, the money went to a fraudulent account. The FBI has reportedly sent several warnings about similar scams.

If you get a zillion bills a day for a few dollars each, I can see one or two slipping past you. $2.9 million dollars though...  You'd think payments that big would be closely scrutinized, right!? Mayor Leeser said the city has safeguards but "the responsible party was able to get around them." Sounds like a great system.

Fortunately, about $1.6 million has been recovered. No one is saying exactly when this happened, only that it wasn't announced for "fear of hampering the investigation". The CRRMA was not asked to keep it quiet but, chose to anyway.

More From KLAQ El Paso