Concord nurse says scammer posed as group president, tried to trick her out of almost $2,000

CONCORD, N.C. — Jeanne Whalen has been a nurse for more than 40 years. She manages the books as treasurer for the Metrolina Emergency Nurses Association.

Whalen told Action 9′s Jason Stoogenke she got an email that looked like it was sent from the group’s president. It had the right name, but a weird email address. Still, it showed the scammer did some homework on the organization.

“They’ve done some work to try to get this right,” she said.

The email asked Whalen to cut a check for more than $1,800.

She says a week or so later, she received another email just like it. But again, it didn’t feel like the president sent it.

“(The president) does not ask me to send a check anywhere without a conversation, what it’s for, receipts, those kinds of things,” she said.

Whalen decided to play along to see what she could learn. “I kind of wanted to string them along until I could get in touch with you,” she told Stoogenke.

The red flags:

- The email address: remember, you can hover your cursor over the sender’s email to see who it’s really from.

- Bad spelling and punctuation.

- Formatting: for example, be suspicious if the font keeps changing.

Click here for more advice, including what to do if you fall victim to a phishing scam.

VIDEO: Age-old Publishers Clearing House scam seems to be popping up more

Age-old Publishers Clearing House scam seems to be popping up more

©2023 Cox Media Group