Email Phishing Scam Referencing Libraries

As seen in the Summer 2022 WLA newsletter:

The Wisconsin Library Association has received reports of Wisconsin citizens receiving puzzling email solicitations purporting to originate from political organizations suggesting that their specific local library needed public support to counteract unspecified challenges to library materials and requesting participation in a poll or survey. The names and some content from legitimate political PACs are appropriated for these similar mail messages sent by sham PACs like scam robocalls hide behind legitimate residential and business phone numbers. Two “tells” are the email return address may contain an extra “e.” after the @ as in info@e.ligitimatePACname.org and the presence of grammatical errors like “River Falls’s Public Library. With campaign season underway, other phishing scam emails may appear to come from your library soliciting funds for a political action committee, political cause, or political party. Remind your patrons that your library will not send messages raising funds for political candidates or causes. No library would give permission to a third-party political PAC to use its name for surveys or polls collecting personal information. Library patron database information is NEVER shared for outside purposes.

 Kris Adams Wendt, Library Development & Legislation (LD&L) Committee