Scam Artists Co-opting Government Identities

By: from press releases | News Channel 7
Published: August 14, 2008

The following press release was sent to wspa.com on Thursday:

Imagine opening your email and having an email from the Executive Secretary of the United States Treasury Department complete with the logo of the Treasury Department telling you that you had won 10 million dollars in a United Nations lottery and all they need is your bank account so they put the money into it.

It has the official logo on it so it must be legit, right? Wrong, and responding to such an email because of its appearance is exactly what the scam artist wants you to do.

Scam artists are now actually going to government web sites and copying logos, pictures, and other information in an effort to make the email appear official so that you are more likely to respond to it.

In this case, the would be victim became suspicious and sent back and told the scam artist that she was going to contact the Newberry County Sheriff’s Office about this incident.

Undeterred the scam artist went to the Newberry County Sheriff’s Office website and copy a picture of Sheriff Foster and attached it to an email saying that the Newberry County Sheriff’s Office had investigated this person and that the victim should do everything he asked her to.

The would be victim knew something was wrong at this point and reported to the real Newberry County Sheriff’s Office.

Sheriff Lee Foster says that you should never allow banners, pictures, or other appearances lead you believe that the email or even website is legitimate. He said that scam artist can easily re-create websites and copy logos to use to attempt to trick people.

Foster said in addition there are a number of indicators that you can will notice in the email such as the email came from a gmail account, which is a Google email account. The victim was asked to respond to a yahoo account. The government does not use such accounts for email activity. Foster said that the scam artist even left his name and a link that says Deputy Sheriff Positions Available when he attached his picture to the email.

Foster said that government agencies do not handle sensitive business by e mail and that you should never, ever give personal or banking information by email to anyone.

If you receive a suspicious email, you should contact your local law enforcement agency immediately.