Moore County Schools is warning parents, employees and community members about phishing attempts involving compromised district employee email accounts.
The Moore County Schools email scam reportedly involves messages advertising estate sales or other items for sale on behalf of third parties. School officials said employees will not use their district email accounts to advertise outside sales or solicit payments for people who are not associated with the school system.
Compromised School Accounts Secured
In a notification sent to families on Tuesday, July 28, Moore County Schools confirmed that some employee email accounts had been compromised. The district said the affected accounts have since been secured.
Officials emphasized that the superintendent’s email account and other central office employee accounts were not compromised. However, the district received reports of phishing messages that appeared to be communications from the superintendent but originated from other email addresses.
Moore County Schools said additional protections have been implemented to help detect and block similar messages. Staff members are also receiving additional training to identify suspicious emails and potential phishing attempts.
Pinehurst Police Investigating Reported Scam
The Pinehurst Police Department is investigating an incident that was reported Monday. Police are encouraging anyone who receives an unexpected request for money, personal information or payment to verify the request through a trusted phone number or a known email address.
Residents should be especially cautious when a message creates urgency or pressures the recipient to act immediately. Suspicious links, attachments and payment instructions should not be opened or followed until the sender’s identity has been confirmed.
What Residents Should Do
Anyone who may have shared personal or financial information should contact their financial institution and local law enforcement. Residents should also consider changing affected passwords and enabling multi-factor authentication on email, banking and other important accounts.
Police recommend preserving suspicious emails, text messages, phone numbers, payment records and other communications. Those materials may help investigators trace the source of the scam and determine whether additional families or employees were targeted.
Suspected scam attempts should be reported to the appropriate local law enforcement agency as soon as possible.
Source: This article is based on reporting from a staff report published by The Pilot, along with statements from Moore County Schools and the Pinehurst Police Department.
