It was a well-intentioned attempt at fraud prevention that led a B.C. school district to send nearly $120,000 to scammers earlier this year.

Unitech Construction Management, a major contractor for public projects in British Columbia, sent a warning to its clients in April, according to a claim filed in B.C. Supreme Court. It said someone was impersonating a project coordinator for the company and had emailed a customer with instructions to update the banking information on file for Unitech.