By Terri Fassio, Public Relations Co-Director

It has come to our attention that Connecticut State Grange Officer email addresses have recently been spoofed, and we wish to make our members and recipients aware of this. We recently have been made aware that some of these type of un- expected spam messages have been sent to Grangers as if they were from CT State Grange President Robert Buck. The messages are FAKE, they are a scam - and they did not come from his email address (they just used his name in the sender field).

Rob’s email account HAS NOT BEEN HACKED, and these mes- sages do not come from the CT State Grange mail servers.

What is email spoofing?

Email spoofing is a form of impersonation. It is the creation of email messages with a forged sender address.  It is incredibly simple to modify the sender of an email, and any- one can do it without specials tools, knowledge or training. This allows individuals or organizations to be impersonated.

Because the recipient of these spoofed emails trusts the alleged sender, they are more likely to open the email and interact with its contents, such as a malicious link or attachment. Spoofing is a means for making certain types of attacks — such as phishing — more believable or effective.

Spoofing is considered an increasingly common form of cybercrime where it is difficult to track down the source of the spoofed message.

What do I do if I receive a spoofed email?

First, verify the identity and email address of the sender. Also, look for poor grammar, misspellings, and unnatural text in the body of the message. Next, avoid clicking on suspicious links or downloading attachments from unknown or untrusted sources. Unusual requests or urgent demands indicate the presence of a spoofed email. Lastly - delete the spoofed message and be sure to emp- ty your trash.

What to do if your email has been spoofed?

There’s not much you can do if someone has spoofed your email to send spam. Luckily, your real ac- count is safe - just don’t forget to change your password once in a while to prevent real hacking.

So, the next time an email seems suspicious, think twice before craft- ing a reply. Call the person directly if you think it may be a real mes- sage, just to confirm. Stay safe, stay informed, and protect yourself.

Need more information? Contact Public Relations Co-Director Terri Fassio (information@ctstategrange.org ).