Fraudsters posing as the county’s emergency alert system threaten account deletion to trick users into sharing personal details
Ashland.news staff report
The Jackson County Sheriff’s Office is warning people to be on the lookout for email scams posing as emergency alert notifications.
The sheriff’s office said in a news release on Monday, Sept. 29, that people have received fraudulent emails appearing to come from Jackson Alerts, the county’s mass notification system. The emails claimed that the recipient’s alerts account would be deleted within 48 hours unless they clicked on a link to confirm their information.
“These emails are not legitimate and were not sent by Jackson County Emergency Management,” Delaney Richmond, the county’s emergency manager, said. “We urge residents to remain vigilant and protect themselves by avoiding emails that come from suspicious sender email addresses and contain questionable links.”
Those who might have received one of the bogus emails should not click on any links or open any attachments, Jackson Alerts advises. And never share personal information. If you suspect a purported Jackson Alerts email message is fraudulent, verify that it came from an official source. To do that, contact the county’s emergency management office instead of using the information in the suspicious email, the sheriff’s office said.
People should also report the email to their email provider as an attempt at phishing to get to their sensitive information.
Jackson County Emergency Management is actively monitoring the situation and coordinating cybersecurity resources to protect residents. Updates will be shared as new information becomes available.
“We take the security of our residents seriously,” Richmond said. “Our priority is to ensure that our community can continue to trust the Jackson Alerts system for timely and accurate emergency notifications.”
For more information or to confirm the legitimacy of a Jackson Alerts email, contact [email protected] or 541-774-6790.
Email Ashland.news associate editor Steve Mitchell at [email protected].
