BEWARE OF SCAMMERS
By Chad Budreau, AMA Executive Director | chadb@modelaircraft.org
ROUGHLY HALF of all emails sent daily are malicious emails by cyber criminals to trick victims. It is easy to think that you would never be tricked by an online scammer, but cyber criminals are becoming more and more sophisticated. The scammers do their research and trick victims into actions that often cannot be refunded, such as gift card purchases or wire transfers.
I regularly receive emails from scammers pretending to be affiliated with AMA, including AMA President Rich Hanson. Members have also received similar emails, to include phishing emails falsely pretending to be a club officer, the club bank, or even me.
One club shared a story about how a treasurer received an email from the club president, asking the treasurer to buy gift cards for the upcoming end-of-year party. The email looked legitimate, included club-specific details, and even appeared to come from the president. On the surface, the email seems credible and timely. Fortunately, the treasurer noticed enough subtle clues to determine that the email was a scam.
If the email seems suspicious, trust your gut. Even if it doesn’t look suspicious, you should still be attentive and look for red flags. AMA’s Information Technology senior director regularly reminds staff that we live in a world in which we need to be suspicious of all emails that we receive. The following are some helpful tips:
- Look at the sender’s email address. For example, if you receive an email from “Chad Budreau,” but the email address is not chadb@modelaircraft.org, it’s likely a scammer. With that being said, it is possible to spoof an email address or, in some cases, an email could be hacked.
- It is often a red flag if the sender expresses urgency, such as “I need you to do this today;” distress, such as, “The club will lose this opportunity if you don’t react quickly;” or secrecy, such as, “Don’t tell anyone or you’ll ruin the surprise.”
- Scammers are starting to incorporate images in emails because spam filters are not sophisticated enough to read or interpret images. Invoices, text, or other content displayed as an image is an indicator that the email is a scam.
- Do not click on any links from a scammer. Most security breaches happen by simply clicking a link in an email from a hacker or scammer.
- Do not respond to suspicious emails. Doing so confirms to the scammer that your email is an active account, which could result in more phishing or scam emails.
- Call a known number to verify. Scammers often include in the email a request that you not call and to only communicate through email. Don’t call the phone number provided by the sender in the email that contains phrases such as, “I lost my phone; here’s my new number.”
Normally, I reserve this column to highlight upcoming events, share updates within the organization, or provide hobby-related news. Unfortunately, I felt it was necessary to discuss the growing trend of scammers. Trust your gut, but also look for some of the red flags that I shared. For additional information, visit www.email-tooltester.com/en/blog/spam-statistics.
Stay safe on the flying field and on the computer!
