OLMSTED COUNTY, Minn. (KTTC) – Officials in Olmsted County are alerting residents about a new scam impacting people in nearby counties.
Scammers are sending emails from Hotmail, Gmail and other non-county email addresses.
The scam emails received reportedly use an email address with a name that looks similar to a county email in the state, but it is not real.
They find information from public websites and use that to create fake invoices asking you to pay by wire transfer.
Olmsted County says a similar instance occurred in Dodge County where a resident received an email that looked as though it was coming from the county administrator. The email was concerning a property permit and asked the victim to wire money for an invoice.
Because scammers include your correct information, this kind of message may look official, but it is a scam.
Here are a few things to think about if you find a suspicious email:
- Invoices will not come from personal county staff email addresses.
- We will never send emails from Hotmail, Gmail, or other free email accounts.
- All real county emails end in olmstedcounty.gov.
- If you receive an email and are unsure if it is real, contact Olmsted County right away.
How to protect yourself:
- Be careful with emails that look suspicious.
- Do not click links or open attachments if you didn’t expect the message.
- If something seems off, contact Olmsted County to double check.
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