OCALA, FL (352today.com) – An email that looks official, with a recognizable name and title, asking for an exorbitant amount of money, may not be what it seems.
Back in May, the Marion County public relations department sent out a scam alert notifying citizens that individuals were engaging in an email phishing scam that appeared to be sent from county employees, asking residents and applicants for large amounts of money and including an official-looking invoice within the body of the email.
Targeted scams
The Growth Services department has been a frequent target of the scam, but multiple county departments have had to email their rosters of departments and applicants that there have been suspicious emails sent out that appeared to be from Marion County, said Chuck Varadin, Marion County growth services director.
The most recent incident took place Monday, said Varadin, where everyone in the Development Review department received an email. On Monday mornings, Marion County has Development Committee Review meetings, and all of the applicants who were part of the meeting received an email that said that they needed to pay $5,000 to participate in the meeting. The email had Varadin’s name and title in the email.
Red flags
“One of the things to look at, especially with scams, is the email title,” said Varadin. “It ended in dot USA (.usa). Our email always ends in marionfl.org. We also don’t send out invoices. We would normally send out a link for people to go to and pay.”…