The Chautauqua County Executive’s Office is warning about a scam where fraudsters are posing at the Executive in a scam email.County Executive PJ Wendel said several individuals and contacts received emails Monday claiming to be from the County Executive, listing “Paul M. Wendel, Jr, Chautauqua County Executive” as the contact name.
In one instance, the sender asked the recipient to purchase gift cards for county employees as a “surprise,” thanking them for their hard work. According to the scam email, Wendel is supposedly in a meeting an unable to acquire the gift cards himself.
Wendel’s office warns that the email address, info.privatemailboard52.us.org@gmail.com, is fake and not associated with the County Executive’s office. He recommends that recipients should report the sender and then delete the email.
According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, this type of scam email is a “spoof” when someone disguises an email address, sender name, phone number, or website URL — often just by changing one letter, symbol, or number — to convince you that you are interacting with a trusted source.
In this case, an impostor created this new account in an attempt to disguise themselves as the county executive and lure the recipient into purchasing a gift card.
Criminals count on being able to manipulate recipients into believing that these spoofed communications are real, which can lead you to download malicious software, send money, or disclose personal, financial, or other sensitive information.
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