New York Special Olympics Email List Suffers Hack

It takes a bad criminal to attack donors to a beloved non-profit organization, but that is exactly what happened with the New York Special Olympics organization.

Who Is It Targeting: Donors to the New York Special Olympics organization

What Is It: Phishing attempt from a hijacked email list

What Are They After: Many donors to the New York Special Olympics program received a phishing attack in their email inboxes last month. Disguised as a receipt for a very high-dollar donation to the organization, recipients were prompted to click the link if there was an issue with their donation. (This is a very common phishing tactic, as your first instinct may be to dispute the erroneous charge.) The link redirected to the criminals’ own servers and was intended to steal identities or financial information.

How Can You Avoid It:

• Never click a link or download an attachment that you are not specifically expecting
• Verify all links, attachments and documents before opening them
• Look for obvious mistakes in any corporate email you receive and do not play along if you spot any errors

If you think you may be a victim of identity theft, contact the Identity Theft Resource Center for toll-free, no-cost assistance at 888.400.5530. Find more information about current scams and alerts here. For full details of this scam check out this article from Tripwire.