Fraudulent emails come in many different forms and are sent from third parties without authorization. You may have heard these messages referred to as phishing or spoofing and they are becoming more common and sophisticated, incorporating brand names, colors, or even names of people you know. This makes it much easier for them to trick people into sending them money, in many cases asking them to purchase gift cards and send them photos of the barcodes.
You will never receive a request like this from EGA.
We take the protection of our members’ information seriously and want to help you make sure you don’t fall victim to phishing or other types of fraudulent activity, whether it’s through email, text, phone or social media.
Here are some tips to keep in mind not only when receiving suspicious emails but also when interacting with others in social media:
Personal information: EGA will not request personal or financial information in an unsolicited matter.
Requests for Money: You will not receive requests for money from EGA unless you are a treasurer, your membership is due or if we are having a fundraising campaign. EGA will never make unusual requests for funds such as using gift cards, or certificates.
Emails from Someone You Know: Just because an email shows that it’s coming from a person or organization you know does not guarantee that it is really coming from them. In order to trick you, people use a method called spoofing to change the “from” field in an email making you believe it’s coming from someone trusted.
Don’t engage: Don’t reply to or click any link or attachment on suspicious emails. This will potentially open the door for more spam or worse issues for your computer and your privacy.
Report and Mark as Junk: Mark any suspicious emails as spam/junk. When you do this, you are helping your email provider to get better at recognizing this type of email and to send these automatically to the spam/junk folder in the future. Some services call this feature Report Junk, Report Spam, Move to Junk, Move to Spam Folder, etc.
Call us: If you question the validity of an EGA email, contact us at 502-589-6956.
Here’s an example of a fraudulent email with some red flags to keep an eye on…
