The Los Angeles County Department of Consumer and Business Affairs is advising business owners to watch out for possible identity theft involving fake government Purchase Orders.
The County has received complaints from businesses who have received fake Purchase Orders purportedly from Los Angeles County requesting goods to be delivered to a location where, unbeknownst to them, the freight is immediately forwarded out of the United States. In each of the cases, the fraudster(s) used the identities of current County employees that are listed in County directories, created e-mail addresses and domains designed to impersonate legitimate County accounts, and had goods delivered to a location they falsely claimed was owned by Los Angeles County.
If you receive any e-mail purporting to be from Los Angeles County government, please pay close attention to the e-mail domain. The primary e-mail domains used by the County are: LACOUNTY.GOV and LASD.ORG. If you receive a Los Angeles County e-mail or Purchase Order that you believe to be fraudulent, please contact:
Los Angeles County Auditor-Controller’s Fraud Hotline
- (213) 89-FRAUD
- (213) 893-7283
- (800) 544-6861
- fraud.lacounty.gov
- fraud@auditor.lacounty.gov
