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