Felicity Reid/Stuff
Waikato Citizens Advice Bureau is warning people to be on the lookout for email scams and to not give out passwords online.
A “sophisticated” email scam targeting the Waikato Citizens Advice Bureau has prompted a strong warning for people to be vigilant and not give out passwords online.
It follows the hacking of the bureau’s email account on Monday, and the sending of several hundred fake invoices and requests for passwords.
Scammers hacked an office email account after fooling a worker into giving out their details with a “phishing” email supposedly from another bureau office, bureau manager Vicky Haden-Jones said.
That meant the hackers got access to a list of email addresses of bureau officials and other agencies, but not clients.
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Some 500 or so phishing emails were then sent out to people on the list with fake invoices and requests for passwords, all using a bureau signature. The scammers also blocked the email address from receiving new emails that might query what was happening.
“This was designed to stall us from seeing what had happened and reacting quickly.”
However, the bureau was alerted to the situation when someone messaged them at an alternative account.
Haden-Jones said checks with people who received the…
