A scam warning

Kiwanis club members should be aware of “spear phishing” email scams.  

Spear phishing scams target individuals by taking advantage of their goodwill. The attacker exploits a relationship you have, making the email seem as if it has been sent by someone you know. The goal is to get the recipient to take a particular action.  

One common scam is to trick Kiwanis members into sending gift cards by saying that the cards will benefit Kiwanis initiatives. The scam works like this:

• A member receives an email that seems to be from a district leader. However, the email address has been altered. For example, instead of the email address the leader typically uses (e.g., name@gmail.com) , the email will come from name1@gmail.com or name@otherprovider.com. The scam email will usually have a district leader's first and last name in the email pretending to be from that person.

• The email will state that the leader is in a meeting and needs gift cards from a specific store to be purchased and sent to him or her as quickly as possible.  

• The email promises that the member will be reimbursed quickly.

Protect yourself

Protect yourself from spear phishing attempts with the following steps:

1. Google your email addresses to find websites on which they are published. 
2. Remove personal information from the sites you find (e.g., email, telephone, physical address, etc.).
3. Contact the site owner and ask that your information be removed. 
4. Turn on multi-factor authentication for your accounts (e.g. Google, Facebook, etc.) using an authenticator app on your phone.