Scam alert Update

[George Taylor]

I do not post often but I thought I better reach out; an email scam was just attempted against our club officers requesting gift cards but more importantly asking the individual to reply. It indicated it was from me, the club president. It appears it was sent to only the club officers; our email addresses are in our newsletter. This all happened yesterday.

Just a heads up.

George Taylor
Hill Country Turners

 

[Donna Banfield]

This scam showed up a few months back. Several clubs were 'contacted', and one of the officers posted the scam on several woodturning forums. Looks like the scammers have resumed their attempt.

 

[Mark Jundanian]

This scam has been tried several times on our club members in the last year or so. It seems the scammer targets one or a few members at a time and I just got hit with the scam two days ago. I thought I would share the text of the message so that something similar will set off your alarms a moment sooner.

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: CHICAGO WOODTURNERS
From: A**** K**** <presidensy@goamesmonvews.org>
Date: Tue, July 21, 2020 7:50 pm
To: ****@****.com

Hello Marcia
Are you available to assist? I am out of the State now and I've got credence in you to take care of this.I would have called your phone but I presently do not have access to my mobile phone.
Chicago Woodturners needs some gift cards for donation to Veterans at Hospice and Palliative care units for preventive items from Corona Disease (COVID 19). I am liable for reimbursement. Need more info?

A*** K***
President
Chicago Woodturners
www.chicagowoodturners.com


Some of the several clues to the nature of the message include that the presidents email address is both wrong and misspelled, and although the message seems to have been personalized, he's never called me Marcia before.

A curious observation is that more than one woodturning club has been attacked. I just wonder what the connection is.

 

[Donna Banfield]

More than likely the scammers are getting the club information from the AAW's website. I don't think you need to be a member to locate chapter clubs. If listed, there is often a link to the chapter's website, which will list the identity and contact information for officers.

 

[Tim Tucker]

Usually, these are fairly easy to spot - due to their poor use of syntax. The sentences are not constructed by an English speaker, and the translation software they are using gives them away. Read it aloud. If it does not sound like the way the person would talk to you....that should be a giveaway.

 

[halgsn3]

A year and a half ago, the San Diego woodturners had a severe email phishing attack on several of our board members. The scammer used the email address of "boardofdirector04(at)gmaildotcom. This was reported to the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center (www.IC3.gov). We ended up doing a complete revamp of our club website: sdwt.org In which we removed public access to board members, mentors and archived newsletters. Access to those are only now through our "members only" link which requires a password. Access from the public to our board members go to a club email accounts (xxx@sdwt.org) and not their personal accounts. Scammers are not going to pay to join & be vetted(their full name, phone# & address are required) before we provide the password. We also have regular paragraph in monthly newsletter warning of email scams. Take a look at our website (www.sdwt.org) for how we set up our website.

 

[Emiliano Achaval]

I do not post often but I thought I better reach out; an email scam was just attempted against our club officers requesting gift cards but more importantly asking the individual to reply. It indicated it was from me, the club president. It appears it was sent to only the club officers; our email addresses are in our newsletter. This all happened yesterday.

Just a heads up.

George Taylor
Hill Country Turners

It's funny, they think turning clubs have a lot of money, that we do not know where or what the other members are doing. We are in constant contact, mainly phone. I got some scam emails, too good to be true, someone had up to 5000 to spend on his wife's anniversary. I did not even respond. Even I can tell they are using Google translate, LOL

 

[Emiliano Achaval]

I was contacted by a fellow forum member. He told me more about how one type of scam works. I was actually contacted by something very similar. This is what he told me:
saw your forum entry "Is this A Scam" on the AAW site and wanted to let you know that, yes it is a scam. My wife has an online gallery of her artwork and received the exact same message from "Steve Thomas". When we agreed to sell him two pieces for $2250, he sent a check for $4260 with instructions to pay his shipping agent the difference when the artwork was picked up. Like you and the others on the forum this raised all kinds of red flags for me. The check he sent me was drawn on the account of Carol Wright Gifts of Edison, NJ and sent from a residential address in Orlando, FL. I took the check to the bank and they ran a verification on it and determined that it was indeed bogus. I agreed to let them retain the check and all of my documentation to send to their security center.
I tried to reply to your forum entry but the AAW site wouldn't allow that so I am using this method to contact you. Feel free to share this information as you see fit.