Bob,

Glad you caught it.  When I was an administrator, the organization I worked for got hit for $28,000 in the same kind of sting.  What amazes me is that anyone would bother with a sting for what amounts in perspective to such modest amounts of $$ (I know it is consequential for our small organization).  They must be looking for little organizations with modest or no infrastructure to dupe, an effort that would require a lot of energy with the probability of small payoff for the work involved.  As you say, it's 2020.

As a warning to others, I got duped this week by an email that appeared to be from my former organization inviting me to a fake Zoom event.  It connected to an extremely realistic screen asking me to confirm my password to the organization's administrative communication system.  Then it went nowhere.  It turned out to be a very sophisticated phish.  They got my password, which I then had to immediately change, apparently with no bad consequences. Not clear what they were after.

The only warning in the fake Zoom was that it lacked specificity about the event, but since it came in the wake of two real Zoom events from the same organization, it looked like a follow up to those.

The general lesson is you can't be too careful.

Best to all for the holiday season in your efforts to avoid viruses of all kinds,

Vinton

Vinton Thompson, PhD
Research Associate
Division of Invertebrate Zoology
American Museum of Natural History
Central Park West at 79th Street
New York, NY 10024, USA
Telephone: 917-443-1680
Email: [log in to unmask]


  

-----Original Message-----
From: Entomological Collections Network Listserve <[log in to unmask]> On Behalf Of Bob Zuparko
Sent: Wednesday, December 2, 2020 10:28 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Scam

I am the treasurer of the Pacific Coast Entomological Society. On Nov. 20th, I received an email, purportedly from the president of the Society to make a payment of $2270, for "Administrative Expenses (Event, Networking and Program Services)". I almost fell for it, but at the last moment realized that this was a rather weird request, and that the email address it came from ([log in to unmask]) wasn't the same as the one I had on record. 

So, I figure someone is out there who is going through the names of officers of Entomological Societies, and wanted to get the word out.

Well, it IS 2020 after all - what else could happen?