Protect Yourself from Scams

 

Beware of Scammers

The Los Angeles County Development Authority (LACDA) has seen recent news stories about malicious attempts to convince clients, vendors and partners to wire money to fraudulent bank accounts. We value our relationship with you and want to provide you with information to help prevent such an incident.

First, the LACDA will never send you via email, a request to update your banking information or to wire or transfer funds to a different bank account. Any request to change wire instructions will be communicated offline. The LACDA has not changed its bank accounts or banking relationships, and we have no intention of doing so in the future.

Second, if you receive an email from the LACDA that seems suspicious, please do not hesitate to call a known contact within our organization to confirm that the email is legitimate before taking any action. You should use a known phone number to call the known contact within the LACDA, not the phone number from the suspicious email or via response to the suspicious email, as attackers sometimes change that information and route calls to a different person or email.

If you have any general questions or comments, please contact (626) 586-1695 or via email at claims@lacda.org.


Beware of Fraudulent Checks

Several counterfeit checks from an entity named “Los Angels County Development Authority” have been used in fraudulent transactions.  Please note that the checks are from an entity named “Los Angels County Development Authority” and NOT “Los Angeles County Development Authority” (“LACDA”). These checks are counterfeit and are not from the Los Angeles County Development Authority.  It is the LACDA’s understanding that the sender may (1) instruct you to deposit the check into your bank account and then (2) instruct you to immediately transfer a portion of the money to a third party’s account.  If you have received such a payment, do not cash or deposit the check, do not transfer any money to an unknown party’s account, and contact law enforcement immediately.  If you have a legitimate business relationship with the LACDA, but are unable to differentiate a real transaction from a fake one, please contact the LACDA to confirm that the check is legitimate. The LACDA will never request a payee to transfer money to a third party’s account.  In addition, The LACDA will never solicit sensitive personal information through insecure channels like email or text messages. 

If you have any questions, please contact the LACDA at (626) 586-1858.