City Of Memphis Adds To It's Own Negative Perception, Loses $773k Of Taxpayer Dollars In Phishing Scam

As someone who very recently moved out of Memphis after living in the 901 for three years, I speak from experience when I say that there are two common questions every non-ignorant Memphian asks themselves on pretty much a daily basis: why am I still living here, and what the hell are my taxpayer dollars going toward?

Memphis is among the most violent cities in the United States, criminals are constantly put back on the street to commit more crimes, assistant police chiefs don't even live in the state, the public school system is in shambles, it's easily the dirtiest city in the country from a per-capita viewpoint, and every city official has mastered the art of pointing the finger at anyone but themselves.

Memphis is one of those places that has been caught up in a downward spiral for far too long - yes, it has its positive pockets like most American cities - but it feels like the city has dug a hole that is far too deep to climb out of. 

READ: Memphis Doctor Gunned Down In Front Of Family Gets Little Media Coverage, Here’s Why: Mark Harris

Anyways, back to those two common questions the citizens of Memphis constantly ask themselves. 

The good news is that we have an answer to where taxpayer dollars have been going. The bad news is that funds are not being put back into city efforts. In fact, a large chunk of taxpayer dollars have been sent to a random account that nobody seems to know a single detail about.

According to the Daily Memphian, the city of Memphis lost $773,000 in taxpayer money when it fell for a phishing scam in 2022.

In February 2022, Memphis was sending regular payments to the local Zellner Construction company. All was well until one day, the city received a request to change account details before sending a wire of $773,000. The city believed the request was from Zellner, and whoever was in charge of making the transfer obliged, and fired off the sum north of $770k.

The new account information was not associated with Zellner, and the money was gone.

Perhaps the most alarming piece of all of this is that the city didn't realize it had sent $773k to a random account until it was too late to retrieve the money.

It's as if the person in charge of moving around taxpayer dollars for the city of Memphis is an 84-year-old just champing at the bit to fall for any and all money-related schemes.