Strafford County commissioner's email account hacked: Scammer asks for gift cards
DOVER — A hacker that broke into the email account of a Strafford County Commissioner George Maglaras has been sending out fake emails soliciting money and has already tricked one person into donating.
Maglaras says the scam email, purporting to be from him, has been sent to people in his email contacts, including county employees.
"The email seems to come from me, but it is not true," said Maglaras. "It is not coming from the county server, but it looks like some executive email address. I need people to know this isn't me because some people have already donated money, thinking it is a cause put out by me."
Strafford County Sheriff Major Steve Bourque said at least one person has already fallen victim to the scam. He said the loss is under $1,000, and they are trying to prevent more victims. He said the personal account owned by Maglaras was not hacked.
Janet Hilber, administrative assistant to the county commissioners, sent out a notice Friday morning indicating Maglaras' email account had been hacked.
"Please immediately delete and/or report as scam any email requesting donations, gift cards, etc. and DO NOT CLICK ON THE LINK," stated Hilber. "Unless you receive an email from Commissioner Maglaras through me, it is likely a scam email. We have taken steps to block this, but the ones already sent must be deleted."
The email sent out requests people to purchase gift cards as part of a promotion for the commission. It states in part, "I have been working on incentives recently, aimed at surprising some diligent staff with gift cards today... I will reimburse you, signed Chairman."
Bourque said the scam is a fairly common one. People are advised to purchase gift cards, scratch off the back and send the code to the person, who is not Maglaras.
"If a few people fall for the scam, the person has made their money," said Bourque. "We are not releasing the email address as that is how we will track this, but anyone getting an email with the body of the message should not take it as real and should report it to us."
Bourque said they are working now to trace the origin of the email. He said they can find the IP address and where it originated in most cases.
"It is the same process we use for many Internet crimes, like child porn, identity theft and ransomware," he said. "We just got this, so we are beginning to work on it. The chairman decided to go public to prevent more theft, and that's the right thing for him to do."
This article originally appeared on Fosters Daily Democrat: Strafford County Commissioner George Maglaras' email hacked
