Phishing scam strikes area schools, media
Email messages like this, that appeared to be from trusted users but were not, were received by Google Docs users across the U.S. as part of a widespread phishing scheme.
An internet scam that has attacked email users throughout the U.S. caused the Coeur d’Alene School District’s email server to be shut down for three hours Wednesday, but law enforcement in Kootenai County didn’t receive many complaints about the scam.
Victoria Michael of the Coeur d’Alene School District Communication Department was getting ready late Wednesday to let district employees know the danger had passed, and their emails were once again useable.
“We seem to be back to business as usual,” Michael said.
The district was among entities throughout the country including educational institutes such as schools and colleges, as well as media outlets such as newspapers and wire services, that were targeted by the scam, according to reports.
Local law enforcement however, did not get many complaints about the mass phishing.
“I’ve no reference as to how widespread this is, we’ve had no calls, other than what other news agencies and Google reports,” Detective Dennis Stinebaugh of the Kootenai County Sheriff’s Office said.
Dispatch phones at the Coeur d’Alene Police Department were similarly devoid of phishing complaints.
“They haven’t received any calls,” Detective Jared Reneau said.
Even if they had, there wasn’t much officers could do, Reneau said.
“We would just tell people to be careful and don’t open attachments from people they don’t know,” he said.
Like many email shell games, the latest Google Doc scam uses email to alert people that someone had sent them a document. Once the link was opened, personal and company data was at risk.
Phishing — or fraudulent email — scams are dangerous because they are packaged as communication from what appears to be a legitimate source. The latest ones look a lot like something Google would send.
In a statement from Google released Wednesday, the tech company said it had taken action to protect users against emails impersonating Google Docs.
“We have disabled offending accounts,” Google said in its statement. “We’re working to prevent this kind of spoofing from happening again.”
Stinebaugh said to prevent being scammed in the future, email users should simply delete suspicious correspondence.
“We can’t stop this, but (we can) remind people to make sure they know who actually sent an email before they open it,” he said. “If you see a suspicious email, don’t open it, just delete it. If you open it, delete it as soon as possible and change your passwords. People who have their information compromised should monitor their bank accounts and credit reports for any discrepancies.”
Internet fraud can be reported at Fraud.org, or www.ic3.gov.