SWEETWATER COUNTY – A recent incident involving Sweetwater County Commissioner Mary Thoman highlights the need to be vigilant when it comes to potential online scams. 

During the commissioners’ meeting Tuesday, Commissioner Robb Slaughter mentioned receiving an email from Thoman asking him to not call her and immediately buy a set of gift cards and send her the card numbers. Thoman didn’t send the email and it was quickly determined it was a spoofing scam targeting the county. “Spoofing” is a type of scam where a scammer hides behind an email address or website that looks legitimate, but changes a letter or number in the website URL or email address to deceive people into thinking they’re interacting with a trusted site or person. 

With the situation involving Thoman, there weren’t any losses resulting from the scam.

“It was obvious from the email it was not from her,” Slaughter said. “It was pretty easy to determine it was a scam.”

Digital scams are prevalent and take many forms. New organizations like SweetwaterNOW aren’t immune from being used in scams. Scammers attempted to use WyoToday in Fremont County in an attempt to gain payment information from readers. Scammers duplicated WyoToday’s Facebook page and messaged people about winning a prize, including a link that sought credit card and address information. The scam piggybacks off of a giveaway hosted by the website for tickets to the Fremont County Cattleman’s Association banquet.

“We’re investigating a suspicious message several folks have reported receiving. Please do not give billing information to any page messaging you about winning a prize,” WyoToday posted on their Facebook page.

Using a legitimate giveaway in an attempt to receive personal information from someone isn’t a new idea and SweetwaterNOW has dealt with similar situations in the past.

“That’s happened to us before too. Now we just have avoid those keywords like win, giveaway, etc.,” Kaylee Hughes, TRN Media’s graphic designer and marketing specialist said.

Adrienne Hintz, the executive vice president of TRN Media, said the company will never seek personal and banking information from SweetwaterNOW readers.

According to the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), which is operated by the FBI, there are several ways to protect personal information and see through a scam attempt. They are:

• Remember that companies generally don’t contact you to ask for your username or password.
• Don’t click on anything in an unsolicited email or text message. Look up the company’s phone number on your own (don’t use the one a potential scammer is providing), and call the company to ask if the request is legitimate.
• Carefully examine the email address, URL, and spelling used in any correspondence. Scammers use slight differences to trick your eye and gain your trust.
• Be careful what you download. Never open an email attachment from someone you don’t know and be wary of email attachments forwarded to you.
• Set up two-factor (or multi-factor) authentication on any account that allows it, and never disable it.
• Be careful with what information you share online or on social media. By openly sharing things like pet names, schools you attended, family members, and your birthday, you can give a scammer all the information they need to guess your password or answer your security questions.