Corrales police warn of invoice email scam targeting artists group

A Corrales Society of Artists official paid invoices after an email that appeared to come from the group’s president, only to learn later that the message had come from outside the organization. The request looked routine enough to pass as normal business, and that is exactly how the impersonation scam worked.

Corrales police chief Victor Mangiacapra used the village’s weekly crime and safety update to warn that the email directed the official to use an online app for payment. The official followed those instructions, then discovered the sender was not who it claimed to be. The warning landed squarely in a community where small nonprofit groups, volunteer boards and local arts organizations often rely on trust, quick replies and shared inboxes to keep operations moving.

The financial risk is real for Corrales households as well as local institutions. A fake invoice request can drain a nonprofit account, delay payments to vendors and force a group to rebuild basic safeguards after money has already moved. In a village where many organizations operate with limited staff and thin margins, even one unauthorized transfer can affect event budgets, artist payments and donations that residents expect to stay local.

Mangiacapra’s warning carried added weight because of his background. The village says he has more than three decades of law-enforcement experience and began his career in 1988, giving him a long view of how scams have shifted from telephone cons to digital impersonation. The Federal Bureau of Investigation says business email compromise is one of the most financially damaging online crimes, and its 2024 Internet Crime Report logged 859,532 complaints and more than $16 billion in reported losses.

The Corrales case also fits a broader pattern the village has already been flagging. In August 2025, police warned about a bail scam that pushed victims toward wire transfers, cash, cryptocurrency, payment apps and gift cards, all methods that are hard to reverse once money leaves an account. The invoice scheme used the same basic pressure point: a request that seemed to come from someone familiar, paired with a fast payment method that discouraged second thoughts.

For Corrales residents and local groups, the red flags are plain. Check the sender address, confirm any invoice request by a separate call or text, and slow down any message that pushes payment through an app. The village now uses SCAN, the Sandoval County Alerts and Notifications system, and state fraud-reporting tools remain available through the New Mexico Department of Finance and Administration, the New Mexico Department of Justice, the Federal Trade Commission’s ReportFraud.ftc.gov portal and the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center.