Letter: Beware of any spoof emails claiming to be real messages

Nefarious forces are in action trying to deceive our veterans and most especially the officers in our department, district and posts.

In specific, these people are “spamming” our The American Legion leadership. More clearly, they are sending electronic messages (through email, text, etc.) that look like they are coming from our leadership and asking for funds to be sent via gift cards, etc.

Most often the emails say something like “I need your help with  …” or “I’m in meetings all day, and I need your assistance …” or “Did you receive my previous email?”, or something along those lines.

Then they describe a situation and ask the person getting the message to get gift cards for a certain amount and send them the numbers. In one recent incident the person that got the email actually went and got the gift cards and sent the information out.

The 6th District leadership is advising the following: DO NOT ever send any money in any form unless you have spoken directly to the individual asking for the funds. This means, before you send any money, in any form, pick up the phone and speak to the person that is asking for the funds.

Don’t just look at the name.Double check the email address that is sending the request. If it is not something you recognize, DO NOT send any money.

I will NEVER send an email asking you to get gift cards for me. NONE of the 6th District leadership, when acting in their official capacity, will ask for gift cards to be sent to them.

If you receive any suspicious electronic communications that look like they are coming from any leadership of The American Legion asking for you to send gift cards, make sure you look up the contact information for that individual on official websites, and call them directly. Report any suspicions of this type of fraud to the appropriate law enforcement agencies.

Sincerely Yours,

Frank Grittner
6th District Commander

Editor’s note: I want to weigh  in on this topic. Anyone can make an email account with anyone’s name. I could make one with Carl Moon’s name in 10 minutes. It’s called spoofing.

Commander Grittner is right to say look at the email address itself to see whether it is familiar. If it isn’t delete it.

Also, department communications come from email addresses that end with mnlegion.org. If the email address doesn’t have mnlegion.org, it is not from the Department of Minnesota.