Readers, I have a good one for you today. I’ve frequently used my column space to talk about scam messages and how to avoid falling for them. Well, this week our office was the target of a scam. 

Every Monday we hold a staff meeting, and our editor shares some of the interesting emails our readers send in. Oftentimes local residents want to submit a letter to the editor, or let us know about an upcoming event so we can send a reporter to cover it. But this past Monday Bill shared with us an email saying we owed TEN THOUSAND dollars to the local Sherburne History Center. 

Obviously, this is ridiculous, and we got a good laugh about the ambition of the scammers. But, to the scammer’s credit, they used the history center’s official logo and the name of a real person who works there to sell the authenticity of the invoice. 

What’s more, while this was the most recent and most egregious email, they had sent others for smaller amounts, around $300-500. 

So I’d just like to take the opportunity to remind our readers to be vigilant with the messages they receive. Scammers can easily take logos and names from the websites of local businesses and use them to create official-looking emails or realistic phone calls. 

If a local business reaches out to you with an invoice for a charge you can’t remember incurring, here’s what you should do: Find a phone number or email address for the business and contact them directly to ask if the charge is genuine. Don’t use any contact information from the email or voice message you received! Go to Google and search for the company’s official website, and use the contact information there to get hold of someone from the company. If you are on the phone with a suspected scammer, hang up. They will tell you not to hang up, and they will threaten you with legal action if you do. But no company will ever act this way in an official capacity. You cannot be arrested or sued for hanging up a phone call in order to do your due diligence regarding a statement of money owed.

I hope you all continue to stay safe! And let me know if you have any scam stories of your own you’d like to share! It can happen to the best of us.