This is a new scam for me. I belong to an art group (club, collaborative, collective, etc) and I received an email that looks like it could have come from the director of the club. I have changed the identity of the club name and director for their privacy. This is the message I received:
Hello Ellen,
Are you available for assistance? I’m out of the state now, I have absolute confidence in you to handle this. The [Nameless Art Club] need electronic gift cards to make donations to Veterans in Hospice and Palliative care units to buy coronavirus disease (COVID-19) prevention items. I’m responsible for the reimbursement. Would you like further information?
Peggy Sue
[Nameless Art Club Director]
At first glance, I thought this was legit because I was/am a member of the art club listed here and the chair’s name, Peggy Sue (not their real name for privacy), was signed at the bottom. Additionally, Peggy Sue was also listed as the name on the email.
Then I felt a little embarrassed that I didn’t understand the ask here and I fed the message into my AI chatbot. AI told me it was a scammer. That’s when I looked at the email and discovered it was not a message from Peggy (and not tied to Peggy’s usual email). It came from here: cj516137@gmail.com
I don’t know who’s email that was and that’s when I realized a scammer at the other end of that email used the Art Club member’s list to send messages like this one, with hopes that they’ll catch someone off guard.
Next steps:
Usually I ignore these and send them to spam. However since this scammer was using the name of someone I actually know and have met, and using the Art Club that I was personally a member of as a basis for their scam, I alerted Peggy (at her real email) right away so that she could warn everyone else in the Club.
I hope you find this helpful, and have a great week!
Leave a Reply