Fraudulent Emails! Be Aware!

This is a friendly reminder to please be alert of fraudulent emails being sent! We have been notified that some members have received emails from created @gmail accounts using past NDCTWS board members’ names to try and trick people into responding. The following email was also sent to the NDCTWS board from National TWS regarding some organization units receiving spam emails appearing to come from TWS council. Tis’ the season for spammers I suppose.

Over the past several years it seems that TWS officers have become the target of phishing attempts. Typically, a Treasurer receives an email from what initially appears to be the President. However, if you look at the email address you should notice that it's sent from a random address that doesn't match the address of a real officer. The email from the "President" requests that the Treasurer pay a bill to a "vendor" or purchase gift cards. However, the request is from a scammer and not the President. It appears that scammers are using the contact information found on Chapter, Section, or Working Group websites.

You may also report these scam emails to the Federal Trade Commission  (instructions on how to report emails are available at https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0003-phishing, towards the bottom of the page under “How to Report Phishing”).  

The board would like to make it known that membership information is not publicly available and is not shared with anyone other than those who require that information. With our new website we have been able to boost our protections and have taken every precaution we can to protect our board members and general membership (e.g., Contact forms using google Recaptcha rather than posting email addresses). However, names of past board members is information that is accessible to the public so someone creating email accounts to appear as a past board member is not something that can be prevented.

If you recieve a suspisious email from someone past or currently affiliated with NDCTWS board asking for money, gift cards, an urgent response, for you to click on a link, etc. or seems suspisious do not respond and do not click on any provided links. Use your best judgement when it comes to suspisious emails.

If you recieve an email you are unsure about you can always use our contact form and ask us if [insert name] is trying to get ahold of you.