Yet again, we have reports of scammers contacting our residents by email pretending to be members of our Board or the Glen’s management staff. Please be alert for these fraudulent emails and don’t fall for the scams.

Phishing is the fraudulent practice of sending emails purporting to be from reputable companies in order to induce individuals to reveal personal information, such as passwords and credit card numbers, and/or send money in the form of gift cards to the sender.

If you think an email might be fraudulent, delete it – don’t open it, don’t reply to it and don’t click on any attachments.

If an email from someone you know seems unusual, it might be because their account was hacked and briefly taken over by fraudsters. The message might contain an unfamiliar link with an accompanying greeting, such as “Hey [Your Name] I thought you might find this useful.” If in doubt, contact your friend separately to see if they sent the email.

Beware of emails that are not personalized. Many phishing emails will start with ‘Dear Sir/Madam’, because the spammers are sending them out to millions of people. Authentic messages, such as those from your bank, will most often address you by name.

Don’t use a link within an email to connect to a site unless you’re absolutely certain who it’s from. These links can lead to phishing websites which look very similar to the real thing. It’s better to open a new window and type the URL in directly. Similarly, never enter your data in a log in box that is embedded in an email.

Beware of time pressure. Reputable organizations probably won’t need you to take urgent action to prevent your account being shut down. This is usually fraudsters trying to panic users into handing over data.

For more information, please see page 4 of the July Glen Echo newsletter.