Mayor Warns Staff

Of ‘Phishing’ Attempt

COOPERSTOWN – Village of Cooperstown employees’ emails are “phishing” targets, Mayor Ellen Tillapaugh Kuch announced this morning.

Phishing is defined as, “the fraudulent practice of sending emails purporting to be from reputable companies in order to induce individuals to reveal personal information, such as passwords and credit card numbers.”

Staff members are receiving an email that “purports to be from someone at the Village and asks for your assistance in a task,” the mayor said.

She advised employees, “If you responded, please ignore any future communication related to this phishing email. If you received this email, please delete it.

Here is an example of the phishing email text:

“Email subject = REQUEST

“Hi <user name removed>,

“Could you please spare a minute to assist me in completing a task discreetly?

“Would be glad to receive your response through email because i’m presently in a meeting.”