Smithfield Police are alerting area schools and businesses to be aware of an email scam that cost a local school teacher $500.
The teacher was at Smithfield Middle School on Friday when she received a scam email that appeared to come from a co-worker. The victim did not realize the email address was just a couple of letters different than her co-worker’s email.
The email asked the teacher to obtain five $100 iTune prepaid cards then email back the card numbers. The victim complied still not realizing the email did not come from their co-worker.
After sending in the card numbers the victim later became suspicious about the email and realized it did not come from their co-worker.
Police Captain R. Sheppard said if you receive an email, even if it appears to come from the name of someone you know, double check the email address to make sure it is from that particular person. Sheppard said scammers are using the names of people the victim knows but the email address is often just a letter or a dot different.A similar scam occurred this summer at Johnston Medical Center in Smithfield where the victim was also defrauded of their money.
