The Division Engagement Office has been sharing with divisions how email scammers have been targeting division leaders, sending emails that appear to be the division president asking another board member to help with cutting a check or purchasing gift cards. We have recently heard from two divisions where members have gotten similar scam emails.
We suggest advising your members via your listservs, newsletters and other media about these scams so they do not fall prey to these attempts. Busy times such as around a conference or when division officers change can be ideal for scammers to take advantage of unsuspecting members.
See below for a message we have drafted that you may want to start with, though you are free to edit it as you like. If you hear of this in your division, please report it to your division account liaison.
Sample message — edit as you like
Dear Division Members,
We have recently heard of members of some organizations being targeted by email scams. Scammers send emails making it look like they are coming from the group’s president and asking the contact to help with making a payment or purchasing gift cards on their behalf.
This scam has been targeted to many organizations and some have fallen prey. This is something that can be easily set up by pulling the names, positions, and emails from a division’s website. This doesn’t mean that such information should not be listed but rather serves to point out how such information may be found and used.
We ask everyone to be extra cautious in dealing with emails asking for payment and to watch out for “phishing” emails, defined on Wikipedia as “the fraudulent attempt to obtain sensitive information such as usernames, passwords and credit card details (and money), often for malicious reasons, by disguising as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication.”
Here are some tips:
- Be cautious when you get urgent messages asking for a check or some type of payment as quickly as possible, especially during a hectic time such as a conference or end of the year.
- Hover over the “from” name in an email, and you may see an unfamiliar or questionable email address.
- Call the person to confirm the request.
- Report scams to me at my email address of [insert your email address here].
You can read an article about phishing (PDF, 330KB)opens in new window and refer to an infographic on phishingopens in new window for more information.
Greatly appreciated,
[signed by division leader]