BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WIAT) — An October email ended up costing a Birmingham Hibbett Sports more than $41,000.

That’s the claim in a lawsuit filed by the sports store and one of its vendors, Worldwide Retail Solutions. In a complaint filed in a Jefferson County Court, lawyers for the companies claim that Hibbett employees were misled into depositing $41,623.76 into a bank account owned by “ABC Corporation,” the fictitious entity named as a defendant in the case.

The complaint alleges that on Oct. 24, the Hibbett Sports located in southwest Birmingham received an e-mail purporting to be from one of their vendors, Worldwide Retail Solutions. The email reportedly requested an update on a payment owed to Worldwide.

“Plaintiff Hibbett requested a current statement and agreed to check into the status of payment,” the lawsuit claims. “At some point during the exchange, Plaintiff Hibbett was asked to update the ACH banking information for Plaintiff Worldwide. Plaintiff Hibbett did so.”

Hibbett then submitted a payment of $41,623.76 into the newly updated bank account on Nov. 1, the suit said. A week later, Worldwide’s actual representatives contact Hibbett, notifying them that they’d received a notice of a payment but no actual funds to accompany it. At that point, the companies realized they’d been scammed.

In its lawsuit, Hibbett and Worldwide asked the court “for any and all relief, including, but not limited to, actual and punitive damages, attorneys’ fees and costs, as the Court may deem just and proper.”

The lawsuit acknowledges that the plaintiffs do not yet know the identity of the alleged scammers: “The true identity and location of the fictitious party is unknown but will be substituted upon discovery of the same.”